No it's not. And it's quite clearly not if you look at his Aberdeen career to date.
His positioning is absolutely awful. Take a look at the goal he conceded last season at motherwell for just one example, lost it at his front post and was so badly out of position he'd have been as well sitting on his arse and just telling the boy to roll it in. Look at the goals he conceded in the Celtic 4-4 game, again, horrendous positioning. How can he ever be confident in himself if he doesn't know where he is in relation to his posts?
You make the point about him not having confidence in his defence. That's most certainly a two way street. You ever think the defence are jittery because they don't know when he's going to come off his line or not? There were 3 or 4 crosses last week that should have been his as they were on the six yard line but he stayed rooted to his line, almost costing us dearly. And then the other night he charges out 16 yards for a ball he was never making. How can you have a go at the defenders in these situations when the keeper is acting so erratically and is not consistent in his decision making let alone handling?
I agree that two years ago he had a very good season, but the two (?) before that he was piss poor, he was piss poor last season and in two matches so far he's been pretty ding for two goals. I don't know if Howard's any better, but even if he's not, it doesn't change the fact that Langfield is still costing us goals after all these years. I don't have much faith in a keeper who loses his place to Derek Soutar.