Nathan Jones told to not throw Charlton Athletic player "under the bus" despite Southampton, Stoke City horror shows | OneFootball

FLW’s Charlton Athletic fan pundit has commented on whether Thomas Kaminski should be dropped for Will Mannion.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Despite making a positive start on their return to the Championship, Charlton Athletic have suffered two heavy back-to-back defeats.

Since their last-gasp victory over West Brom at the beginning of November, the Addicks have lost three games on the spin, starting off with a 1-0 defeat away at Wrexham.

But in the last two games, Charlton have been conceding goals at an alarming rate, suffering a shock 5-1 defeat at home to Southampton, while Nathan Jones’ men went down 3-0 to Stoke City in midweek, meaning they’ve lost on a combined aggregate score of 8-1 over the last two games.

In their defeat at the Bet365 Stadium, Charlton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski received fierce criticism for his role in conceding two of the goals, first being caught out by a wicked delivery from Sorba Thomas that flew into the back of the net, while he failed to deal with a routine cross from the Welshman, letting the ball squirm under his gloves in a desperately embarrassing evening.

On X, many Charlton supporters have been calling for the return of keeper Will Mannion to the team, who was displaced following Kaminski’s arrival to The Valley from Luton Town this summer.

Mannion played a helping hand in Charlton’s promotion back to the Championship last season, starting the opening 14 third-tier games before suffering a hamstring injury.

On his return, he was displaced by Ashley Maynard-Brewer, but a groin injury to him helped Mannion get back into the team, as the Addicks achieved promotion via the play-offs.

With the call being made by supporters to make the change in goal, FLW’s Charlton Athletic fan pundit has shared his thoughts on whether Kaminski should be dropped and Mannion brought back into the starting fold.

Charlton Athletic advised to show patience to Thomas Kaminski after Stoke City howler

Speaking to Football League World, Charlton Athletic fan pundit Chris Woodward believes Nathan Jones shouldn’t be rushed into replacing Thomas Kaminski after one poor performance, but admits a change will have to be considered if the trend continues.

Chris said: “When you concede eight goals in two games, I think everybody’s first instinct is to look at the goalkeeper and think that’s where the issue lies, especially after two very poor games, emotions running high among the fanbase and people look for someone to blame, and Kaminski has been a casualty of that.

“For the first goal against Stoke, there’s nothing he can do about it. It’s sheer luck from Sorba Thomas and there’s no positional error from Kaminski, so it’s incredibly harsh to fault him on that one.

“The third one is definitely a very poor piece of goalkeeping, but to put it into perspective, that’s the first goal we’ve conceded in 17 games where Kaminski should have 100% prevented the goal and was the main culprit.

“Kaminski hasn’t been the best at commanding his area and has struggled with crosses, but that’s not what he was signed for. He’s a proven shot-stopper at this level and higher, winning games against Ipswich and West Brom with very important saves.

“The issue is we don’t concede a lot of chances, especially those of high quality, besides the Southampton game, where he’s being forced to make these types of saves, which is why his ability at shot-stopping has gone under the radar.

“Will Mannion proved last season his strengths are where Kaminski struggles, in terms of claiming crosses and commanding his area, which is why supporters want to give him the opportunity to earn that number one spot, but because of our solid defence last year, the fact he was only fit for just over half of the season and him having very little games at a high level before, Mannion’s shot-stopping is an unknown quantity, and he may potentially concede certain goals that Kaminski has prevented this season.

“I don’t think we throw Kaminski under the bus after one poor game and back him to shake it off and go again, but I’m not against Mannion being given a chance if Kaminski’s levels do start to dip, because quite frankly, he didn’t put a foot wrong last year.”

Charlton Athletic can’t afford many more Thomas Kaminski mistakes

It’s been a freakish couple of games for Charlton Athletic, who have conceded as many goals in their last two games as they did in their previous 12.

And when you’re going through a rough patch, the last thing you need is your goalkeeper having some shaky moments, and that’s exactly what Thomas Kaminski produced against Stoke City.

There is some sympathy for the opening goal. Kaminski’s positioning for the goal isn’t poor at all as he is expecting the ball to be whipped into the penalty area, and with it travelling at such a fast pace, it’s difficult for any keeper to readjust to get back to make the save.

But the third Stoke goal is such weak goalkeeping. The cross is inviting, but he should be dealing with it rather comfortably after it evaded the oncoming Stoke attacker, and it’s something the Belgian can’t afford to make again if he wants to retain his place in the long-term future.

You can understand the calls for a change in between the sticks as these mistakes are costing Charlton vital points, but Kaminski should be at least given another game to see if he can turn it around and have a more reliable display.

It will be a testing one too, away at league leaders Coventry City, where they are expected to have less of the ball and offer up a fair few opportunities, and if any other mistakes crop up, then it’s more than justified to see Will Mannion be considered for a recall.