Roy Carroll and His Broken Shamrock
I’m trying to like you Roy, I really am.
It must be some lucky shamrock the Northern Ireland native has stashed away in his goalkeeping gloves. Having signed with Rangers for a year, he is vowing to fans that he is not at the team to party on drunkenly.
Though when I hear comments like (check out the article) “I decided to come up here because they have Champions League as well”, I kind of err on the side that this guy is just shadowing others for a shot at Champions League glory, which is not a problem at all, but how about you prove your place first.
Now back to the Shamrock…
If you look at his performances at Man U, that Pedro Mendes incident just resonates in every goalkeeper’s mind. Remember AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League? Red Devils fans are still cringing. He had a shocker time at West Ham to boot, being injured for a whole season, so hopefully this is a fresh start? He did play extremely well for Wigan back in 1997 through to 2001, but he never switched it on in the Premier League…it’s a totally different gig.
I think Carroll is not a “pressure” goalkeeper, what I mean by this is that some goalkeepers are great at being second choice in top flight football, but can never transition mentally into holding onto the number 1 jersey. Reserve goalkeepers are ultimately there to provide first choice goalkeepers an edge (think Cudicini and Cech, Cudicini being a fantastic goalkeeper).
This does not mean that reserve goalkeepers do not have the ability. In cases of poor performance, reserve goalkeepers whom come up to a first choice position in a top-flight team, suffer from a lack of game practice, stage fright, and living up to huge expectations from fans. These same emotions hounded Carroll at Man U.
Roy, I hope that you find a Shamrock that brings you some luck mate…following is an interview.
BIGJ writes at Keeper Skool, the only real-time goalkeeping blog on the net.
Ed’s note: Any mention of Roy Carroll cannot be made without showing this video.
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Always thought that United should have sold him sooner because he was never first choice material if you notice the difference VDS has made it is much improved. I would have even preferred Kuczcak in goals and never really understood why SAF loaned out Foster when we had this travesty in goals and with my family being hardcore Celtic fans (I quite like them too) I hope he fails miserably if he does get any games.
July 13th, 2007 @ 18:24Now I know why he sucked, he wore number 13. Or was it something else?
July 13th, 2007 @ 19:21All i want to say is to the Author to stop using the term Man U.
July 13th, 2007 @ 19:59MY Opinion is Utd destroyed the guy,
he was a promising star at Wigan, and Utd bought him to be understudy of barthez, when barthez failed (or started to loose form) rather than trying carroll SAF went to Howard as 1st choice.was it encouraging for him?
About mendez incident, Why was he dropped after it, for 1 off incident? It can happen to any GK, cheh, buffon any…
Dropping him after it will only make it worse.
If he wasn’t premiership material, why was he kept for 4 long years? and before that paid so called 2m+ for getting him.
I can see this happening to Kuzzck and Foster, GK is a position where u need a first choice and a 2nd choice,
2 guys whose ambition wont overlap.
Its better for utd to sell one of kuzzack or foster.
July 13th, 2007 @ 23:42I think United have a knack of “destroying” their players, especially for under performance, but I can only assume that it would be the same in any highly competitive football environment…
July 14th, 2007 @ 03:47Carrol was mediocre at best in his time at Utd, and you could see why the dropped him from his time at West Ham, awful stuff. Hopefully a new setting will bring his form back, good luck to him.
July 14th, 2007 @ 16:44Im glad that I can see this… I thought that all of you English ppl hate him becouse of few accidents… So, I wasn’t right… He has a new begining now, and he will prove himself in Scotland…
July 16th, 2007 @ 18:59About his interview… What he ment is that he would keep spirits of his team mates in champions leguage… like mcgregor… he told that he is young and that he has to be in a good mood for CL… so he is planing to help him