I agree with all you say, but it's not just that. When defenders passed the ball back to him, he never exuded calm, because he was never fully in control, probably because he doubted his own ability with his feet. This means that defenders don't trust him, and position themselves deeper which...
Kuszczak was an amazing shot-stopper, with good positional sense and, as you say, great reflexes. His distribution was dire, however, so the question is: what's Niki's distribution like?