LUFC Alex McCarthy Q & A

Josh Aspinall, the editor of Vital Reading has been good enough to answer a few questions on our new loan signing Alex McCarthy.

Are you disappointed that McCarthy has not played in the championship this season?

In a way yes, because he showed such great form last season but at the end of the day, Federici (our first choice) is the best goalkeeper in our squad so I suppose I would rather have him, especially as his form this season has been superb and there has been no need to put McCarthy in.

He got his chance in February last season. Was he a big reason why Reading went on a great run until the end of the season?

I don`t think he was the main reason but he certainly played a crucial part. As you were a few days ago, when our first choice keeper is out injured for a while we started to panic and in all honesty, I expected our third choice keeper to step in (Andersen) but McDermott chose McCarthy and it was without a doubt the right choice. It is no coincidence we only lost twice when he was in goal for us, even in one of those losses he won man of the match!

He was fantastic against us at Elland Road in April, was this a usual performance?

McCarthy was a very consistent goalkeeper when he was in the team and obviously the game at Elland Road stood out considering he was always going to be tested by a good side in yourselves. As mentioned in the previous question, he also got man of the match against Manchester City when we lost 1-0, kept the score line very respectable.

What are his strengths and weaknesses?

His strength without a doubt is his communication and his ability to come for crosses. He certainly wins this battle over our first choice keeper in commanding his box, with a big frame of 6`5 he makes good decisions when coming out for the ball and normally gets it. His shot stopping is very good as well.

Not many weaknesses really, as I have never seen him make a ghastly mistake in a Reading shirt but one thing of mentioning is that his kicking can be very suspect. It is only really from goal kicks but they can sometimes come up a bit short.

Do you have any interesting chants for him that we can adopt for a month?

Not anything out the blue really, just your typical 'Alex McCarthy do-do-do-do-do` similarly when you would do 'xxxxxxxx for England`. I`m all for your fans making up new chants though!

Thanks for those Josh, I really hope we see the same Alex McCarthy for the next month, who we saw at Elland Road in April.




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