Fans will defend Darlow but not Matz Sels

I defended Matz Sels when he made early mistakes in his Newcastle United career. After all, adjusting to English football is tough. Sure, it cost us some early points, and his cup play hasn’t been all that stellar, but I’m still a fan. I will defend Sels until the point he has proven he is a terrible keeper.

And that won’t happen because he is a great keeper.

But Karl Darlow has managed to set expectations. After his admirable performance in Newcastle’s waning months of the Premier League, fans saw Darlow as our potential number one keeper. Now that it has happened, Darlow has a lot of expectations. Expectations that he failed to meet against Norwich.

Let’s face it, we would have won that match if Darlow had not made silly mistakes. The 2-2 draw should have been a 1-2 victory. After all, everyone was pretty much in top form against Norwich, ready to take three more points towards their promotion run.

It was going so well. But simple mistakes by Darlow let in goals that cost the club the match. But that isn’t my problem. We all make silly mistakes, and Darlow fell victim to that. Really, he’s still a class keeper.

But why defend Darlow and not Sels? Why back up the keeper we expect more from and ridicule the keeper that is new and still unadjusted to life in England? I’m sorry, but if we’re going to hold Matz Sels to a higher standard than Karl Darlow, then Karl Darlow should be on bench following that performance.

I’ll end it there and let you guys finish the discussion.