Black Cats "Roadrunner" needs more than pace.
By: Luke Edwards (The Journal).
Carlos Edwards is known as ‘Roadrunner’ at Sunderland in honour of the un-catchable cartoon character, but the flying winger know he will need more than just his pace to succeed in the Premier League. Edwards returned to the Black Cats side against Newcastle United last weekend and surprisingly played for the whole 90 minutes in his first game since the 2-2 draw at Birmingham at the end of August.
But the Trinidad and Tobago international, whose penetration and creativity has been sorely missed by Sunderland so far this season, admits his hard work starts now in terms of getting back to full match sharpness.
“I got through the Newcastle game on adrenaline because it was a derby and such a passionate game,” said Edwards, arguably Keane’s most successful signing as a manager. “But the real hard work starts here.
“Regardless of how I was feeling, if I was 50% fit I would have wanted to play against Newcastle. Those are the games you want to play in and it was just my luck that I did. On Friday night he (Keane) mentioned it to me that he wanted me to start and left it to me to decide if I was OK. He did not want me to rush into it, but I told him I was ready. However, make no doubt about it, I need two or three games proper before I’m back to my best.”
Nevertheless, as a player who prides himself on his pace, as well as his laid-back approach to life, Edwards does not believe it will take him too long to get back into the groove. He said: “I am one of those players who tends to keep themselves fit. I like a few drinks, I am not going to lie, but I am one of those who is naturally fit. I don’t think they call me the Roadrunner for nothing.
“It’s only at Sunderland they’ve called me that, I think Dean Whitehead started it. It has stuck and the physio and players make the beep beep noise at me. Everyone is scared to run against me. Some players challenge me by chasing after me – 99.9% of the time they are not successful.
“Sometimes Dwight (Yorke) tries to test out his fitness. He is only going to blow his gasket. I laugh, and say ‘what you doing Dwight?’ He is testing himself, he has a sense of humour. He is like the coyote, setting all the traps and he is ending up on the wrong side.”
Despite Edwards’ jokes at Sunderland’s training ground yesterday, the former Luton Town star admitted the hamstring injury which has kept him on the sidelines had been difficult to deal with.
He added: “There was one week when my head was down and I didn’t want to do anything. When it first happened I was not myself, I was a nightmare. The second week, I was back to my normal self. There was nothing I could do about it and I came to my senses.
“It doesn’t play on my mind and you can’t afford to think like that. If you do then it will go (again). Injuries do happen in football and I’m not going to go out there thinking about it.”
With Edwards already back, Keane is also set to welcome captain Dean Whitehead and striker Andy Cole into his first-team plans as long as the pair come through tonight’s friendly against Falkirk unscathed.
And Edwards added: “Players are coming back now who should be in the team and that means there will be much more competition for places. No matter what position it is, I don’t think any player is guaranteed his place, especially with the manager as he is.”
As for Keane, he was rather less taken with his winger’s new nickname. He said: “He is quick, but I don’t know about Roadrunner. Roadrunner never got caught and Carlos got caught a couple of times at the weekend! It’s great to have Carlos back. In an ideal world we wouldn’t have played him for the full 90 minutes against Newcastle – and he will get sharper. But, you could see last Saturday that he gives the team better balance when he’s in it.”
Meanwhile, Keane, who enjoyed more than his fair share of physical battles as a player, has defended Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton following his thigh-high tackle on Sunderland’s Dickson Etuhu during last Saturday’s 1-1 draw. He said: “It was high, but he was going to win the ball. The incident has been exaggerated. It is not as though Dickson needed treatment, he was not carried off. He is fine.
“The lad Barton has apologised and as far as I am concerned, it is over with. Maybe everyone made a big issue of it because it was Barton, but we seem to be losing that side of it. You have to tackle. The ball is there to be won, it is an important part of the game.”
