Cardiff City yesterday secured the loan signing of Blackburn Rovers’ goalkeeper Peter Enckelman for the remainder of the season. He has barely featured at Rovers with Brad Friedel a rock behind their defence so we headed over to Vital Aston Villa to ask for some opinions on the player.
Bit of a while since we last saw him in action, he seemed like he was developing into an ok keeper, can’t remember him ever really stunning with performances but was a decent enough shot stopper, as long as the shot wasn’t from a throw in. He never looked particularly confident though.
Quite possibly the Championship could be his level. Always difficult to tell how a player will settle in and as he learnt, all mistakes by keepers are far more costly, but he should be ok for you guys, he has had enough experience at the top level and had some decent enough goalkeeping coaches.
It was really one major mistake that cost him his time at Villa and seemed to decimate his confidence. Mellberg took a throw in straight to him during our local derby v Blues. Encks missed the ball and it went into the back of the net. He seemed to be oblivious to the rule that if he hadn’t touched it, it wouldn’t count. Fair enough we were all also oblivious, but then we weren’t keepers.
There were certainly mixed opinions of the Finnish International, whose name directly translates into ‘simple man’. That apparently typifies his character, solid, efficient but never a stand-out performer.
It seems he will be forever haunted by the mistakes he made, with some Villa (or Birmingham City!) fans never likely to forget. If confidence is an issue for him, he must start well at Cardiff and avoid targetting from the sometimes impatient and hostile Ninian Park crowd.
All the best Peter, hope you fit in well and can continue our good work moving up the table.
Thanks to those at Vital Villa who shared their opinions.
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