No concerns for Hatters boss as he insists Town keeper Kaminski has his full support

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield has thrown his support behind goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski, reiterating that the Belgium international remains his number one choice at Kenilworth Road.

The 32-year-old was one of Town’s stand-out performers in the Premier League last season, as he finished second in the rankings for most saves made, with 145, just behind Manchester United’s André Onana, even winning the best save of the season for his double stop against Crystal Palace. This term it hasn’t gone the way he wanted though, Kaminski keeping just six clean sheets, although he has still made 104 saves, the third most in the division, far higher than he would have expected going into this season.

Recent games have seen him struggle at times too, as he gave away a penalty in the 2-0 defeat to Watford when appearing to be slow in coming off his line to foul Mamadou Doumbia, although replays showed it was an incredibly harsh call. He also almost got caught out in the 1-1 draw with Plymouth, Callum Wright capitalising on his hesitancy, only to see the goal fortunately chalked out for what appeared a highly dubious offside.

The keeper then might have done better in preventing Maksym Talovierov’s leveller as well for the Pilgrims, but asked if his form has led to any concerns, Bloomfield said: “No, Thomas is a top keeper. He’s played behind a back four and a back three, injuries have meant a change in personnel in front of him all the time, so I feel for Thomas. He’s a top goalie and he has my full support.”

With Town suffering so many injuries, particularly defensively this term, Kaminski lined up behind yet another different back three on Sunday at Vicarage Road with Reuell Walters and Mads Andersen replacing Mark McGuinness and Kal Naismith to play alongside Amari’i Bell. On whether having such an altered back-line has had an effect on Kaminski, Bloomfield continued: “Yes because relationships are built through repetition and telepathy is built through repetition, knowing each other what they’re going to do before they actually go and do it.

"You know what it’s like when you’re working with someone day in day out. You know what they’re thinking, what they’re going to say before they even go and do it. Me and my assistant Thommo (Richard Thomas) we often say before the other because we know, because we’ve worked in each other’s pockets for the last two and a half years. When Thomas hasn’t had that it’s tough for him but no, he has my full backing, he’s a top goalkeeper.”

One thing that Kaminski and his team-mates simply have to stop though is the easy nature of the goals they are conceding at the moment under Bloomfield. Following Tom Dele-Bashiru’s penalty at the weekend, Edo Kayembe then tapped in from a few yards out after Giorgi Chakvetadze had left Andersen for dead and got the better of Bell inside the area as well.

The boss added: “We conceded two soft goals, first one wasn’t a penalty but was given, the first time Watford got into our box, second one was too soft for me, they ran away from us, that can’t happen, so we have to be quicker, we have to be at it. We’ve gone back and watched them (goals conceded) again from the whole season.

"We’ve got to be stronger defensively and we have to finish our chances as we’ve created some big chances. Against Sheffield United we created some big chances, against Plymouth we created big chances. We have to finish them and we have to stay strong defensively, that’s what the game comes down to, because in between both boxes, I’ve been saying it for weeks now, we’re absolutely fine. Sunderland we weren’t, so there’s no covering over that, Millwall was a scrappy game, apart from that we’ve been absolutely fine, but the two boxes make results, not performances.”