Why Howard shouldn't get his way

Tim Howard has claimed he has been harshly frozen out of the first team at Old Trafford, but the goalkeeping statistics for Manchester United this season suggest that Sir Alex Ferguson is currently picking the right man.

The American shot-stopper started the first five league games of this campaign, conceding five goals and being on the winning side just once.

His replacement Roy Carroll has conceded just four goals in the subsequent seven Premiership games and kept three clean sheets in the last four league games.

Carroll has saved 83 percent of shots that he has faced this term, a tally that puts him fourth overall in The Premiership. In contrast, Tim Howard saved just 58 percent of goalbound shots in his five appearances, with only Liverpool's Chris Kirkland (54 percent) faring worse.

There is a similar difference in this year's UEFA Champions League with Howard saving 50 percent of shots in his one appearance, while Carroll has a save percentage of 81 percent in United's next three games.

With Carroll doing his talking on the pitch, Howard may have to wait some time before wrestling the jersey back off the Northern Ireland international.

Rank	Player	Team	Shots Faced	Saves to Shots Ratio
1	Mark Crossley	Fulham	14	93%
2	Gabor Kiraly	Crystal Palace	30	90%
3	Petr Cech	Chelsea	21	86%
4	Roy Carroll	Manchester United	23	83%
5	Thomas Sorensen	Aston Villa	43	79%
 	 	 	 	 
Rank	Player	Team	Shots Faced	Saves to Shots Ratio
22	Brad Friedel	Blackburn Rovers	68	63%
23	Dean Kiely	Charlton Athletic	55	62%
24	Russell Hoult	West Bromwich Albion	54	61%
25	Tim Howard	Manchester United	12	58%
26	Chris Kirkland	Liverpool	13	54%