OPINION
It has been a case of going round the merry-go-round when it comes to Aston Villa and their goalkeepers this season with three men taking the role in the starting XI.
First up for the Villans was summer signing Orjan Nyland but instead of filling his defenders with confidence he was left filling the fans with fear at what he might do next.
It was no surprise that Dean Smith chose to fill his boots with Lovre Kalinic in January, Nyland coincidentally suffering a season ending injury which forced the Croatian international to take his place in the starting XI.
After a couple of shaky appearances in his handful of outings, with one clean sheet in his first seven league games, the 6’7″ colossus (source: Transfermarkt) also saw himself struck down by injury – albeit nothing nearly as serious as Nyland’s setback.
Benched for one game it was Jed Steer’s turn to step up to the plate against Stoke City and while Kalinic might have expected to return to the line up against Derby on Saturday, that was not the case.
Instead it was Steer who was named among the XI to try and shear the Rams and looked pretty assured between the sticks.
With Smith having demonstrated how ruthless he can be when someone is not performing – Nyland replaced in the blink of an eye in January – Kalinic’s exile from the line up means one thing and one thing only – he is already fighting for his future with the Villans.
The longer Steer keeps him out the team the less chance he has of staying past the summer and so Kalinic has got to hope his teammate falls out of form or he can impress enough in training to make a difference.
Not good for the giant, whose Villa career could be over as quickly as it begun.