Michael Carrick is ready to take
penalties in Cristiano Ronaldo’s injury-enforced absence, but he’s sure
the Reds will start banging in the goals when the 2008/09 season kicks
off this weekend.
Carrick has shown his credentials as
an able understudy to United’s regular spot-kick taker, scoring in the
Community Shield shoot-out against Portsmouth on Sunday. He also
converted from 12 yards in the pre-season friendly against Aberdeen
and, of course, the Champions League final in Moscow.
The
27-year-old has been laid low recently with the same virus that has
kept Wayne Rooney out of action. But his return as a second-half
substitute at Wembley comes as a welcome boost to Sir Alex’s injury-hit
squad.
“I’m just about back to normal now,” he told MUTV.
“I’ll have a good week training and look forward to playing Newcastle.
Sunday’s game was too soon for me to start, but it was good to get out
there. We’re all looking forward to the first game of the season.”
Should
United earn a spot-kick against Kevin Keegan’s men in Sunday 16:00 BST
kick-off at Old Trafford, Carrick won’t shirk the responsibility if
he’s on the pitch. “I quite enjoy taking penalties actually,” adds the
Wallsend-born midfielder.
“I’ve never really taken penalties throughout my career, but I took one
at Aberdeen and I’ve scored in penalty shoot-outs. If a penalty comes
up, I’d step up no problem.”
The Reds have scored just once in
the last three games – Fraizer Campbell struck against Espanyol – but
that hasn’t got Carrick worried. “It’s not really a concern,” said the
Englishman. “It’s still early days, the performances are there and
we’re creating the chances. We’ve got the lads to stick them away. In
an ideal world you’d be winning every match comfortably. Last season we
didn’t start all that well, but hopefully we’ll start next week by
banging the goals in and getting ourselves off the mark.
“Since
the first game back against Aberdeen, we’ve all progressed and got
better with every game. Sunday’s was a good performance. But we want to
improve and get better. This is one step further in our preparations so
I’m sure we’ll be ready.
“It’s nice to start the season well.
We’ve won the Community Shield this year, and we started last year in a
similar fashion. We just want to keep improving and progressing and
we’re hoping to have an even better season this time around.”
lols.. goal barren coming again.. henry henry henry!!
HAHAHA carrick , knock it down 20 first lah
Originally posted by dinky1409:lols.. goal barren coming again.. henry henry henry!!
if henry comes, i hope he would be on a loan deal... like 2006's larson
I would like to see him hammering some long ranges..
cause with Scholes retiring soon, we may not see that again...
I still loves it when Giggs take corner, floats it to Scholey, and he just hammers it...sweet...
Still can rmb the one Scholes scored against Bradford.
Originally posted by omgukilledkenny:Still can rmb the one Scholes scored against Bradford.
wish someone from Midfield can do that..
Nani shown some promise with some long-range too.