Article: Best vs Carroll | Football, Newcastle

Well the stats are out there now, so as long as no more mongs come along and grief me for claiming that Best is better than Carroll () people can take what they want from it.

Believe me, I'd love a class striker as much as the next, especially someone with the potential of Carroll. At the moment though, with Best, we actually have someone who could net just as many goals as most good strikers outside of the top 6 clubs can. It could be better, but it could be a HELL of a lot worse, and I don't think we have anything to worry about, especially with Ba in the running as well.

Anyway, off to bed!

 

People have disagreed with the OP's opinion that Best is as important to Newcastle now, as Carroll was in Newcastle's first six months of the season. It's pretty fair to disagree with it, as he hasn't brought assists into his argument, which is obviously a pretty big thing when comparing someone's importance to the team, wouldn't you say so, Rory?

I certainly don't see the need to belittle other Newcastle fans just because they disagree with the OP's opinion.

 

It's not like Best is old either, he's 24 and can still improve. If he gets a good run he could bag more than 10 this season. I think we'd all love someone with Carroll's potential again, but if you take Best's goals to games ratio from his time in the prem with us, he's one of the better strikers in the league right now. Some fans will never be happy though.

Night

 

Brilliant, using my name, wish we still had the chatbox to laugh at Nolhman

He said it's only goals, yet people are like 'but.. but' and that wasn't the OP's purpose to discuss who is better, just discussing goals, which are an important factor.

 

I just want to firstly say that im not a Best basher, infact he is by far the best we have and is still relatively young.. I think if everything goes well he can maybe even get 12 goals......

But we have only played 3 games of the season and Best is injury prone, his stats are good now but I dont think people believe he will keep those stats up over the season.

Its like me saying Di santo (scored two in a game just like Best) has a better goal ratio this season then Drogba, Anelka and Torres its true but not its truely really relevant, Id rather have any of those 3 then Di santo... You may say it is relevant as Im judging both strikers at the start of the season, but there are way to much variables. Best has way better quality behind him this season compared to the last, thats what I meant by you cant compare the two! Plus look at the teams Carroll scored against.
Best scored against Fulham who up until deadline day just gone I could see in the mix for relegation!!

 

The chatbox got killed when it moved down the bottom, think its totally gone now. Where is Nolham these days? Is he Comas?

 

True important, but if football was just judged on goals why isnt Pele the officall best player ever??

 

You didn't take into account the fact he included Best's appearances last season.

 

Lets hope Best can score us the goals this season....

 

Okay when both players are or were in the team they were/are Target men they win balls and play in players around them aswell as chipping in with goals... If you or Chappaz can include in your stats assists (how many of Nolans goals were due to carroll, which resulted in points for the team), headers won... Key passes in build up, then Ill take my hat off to you....

But at the moment your looking at the very narrow stat of goals and then saying they contributed the same to the team, how can this be true??

 

If people are asking who is better out of Best and Carroll then the answer is clearly Carroll

But, if they are just stating facts then you gotta say Best has done well for us since the West Ham game last season

 

I'm not even gonna bother, everyone seems to be comparing overall play instead of just talking about the point of the article. Also best is a poacher not a target man.

 

I would probably agree about Best being a poacher - although he does win his fair share of headers

 

I think this is the problem with stats, they can mask many aspects of the game. I think you have to give Best credit for the goals he's scored. He is the best we have at present due to some inept transfer work and he brings as much as any in general play even if it is currently below the required level for us to truly progress. He has a better goal record so its a no brainer. I just feel there is little chance of that goal record being replicated over a long period. He's a johnny on the spot no question but its class that buys longevity. I think Carroll will end with a better career goal record. In terms of importance to a team, goals are only one aspect of assessing it. Therefore it is not possible to compare in respect of importance based on the stats presented. But generally Carroll was a lot more important to the team in the period he was here.

I actually might not rate Best that highly but I do feel he could make a decent sub. He can go very quiet for long periods when he starts and can be cumbersome resulting in break down in play. But as noted earlier he does seem to in the right place as a striker with tap ins etc. When you are pushing in games those guys can be useful because poaching is an art. Poachers are just not as useful in modern football which relies more on skills and movement. You have to have the full package.

 

They're ALMOST exactly the same. Obviously, for a striker, goals are a priority, so assists are factored in, but just not as much.

Overall importance to a team would be different, but I'm speaking about the games we've had so far and the direct number of points which have been contributed thanks to the goals of both players. The hard factual stuff. This point inparticular is just to silence those who claim that Best's goals are all clumped together in hat tricks here or braces there. In reality, 50% of his goals have directly contributed points to Carroll's 54%. If people were happy with how Carroll scored, they should be happy with Best.

In the respect of goals they're virtually the same, but there is a difference in assists of course. However, we won't know how important those assists were until we see which goals they contributed to.

What are you going on about? Best has scored 8 goals in his LAST 13 games.

8 goals. In 13 games. As you know, 13 games span over many months. This isn't just a statistical anomily due to the new season. It's a consistant and long run of form which started last season and has continued into this season.

Even if Best's current ratio drops (which it most likely will) he could still be in with 12+ goals a season, and that's pretty conservative.




If I can find an easy way to do it, I'll find out the assists Best and Carroll contributed and see what sort of difference they made. Obviously with Carroll getting far more assists, it's obvious he'll be a much more important player in future if he can replicate that. However, I'm just trying to figure out how important Best was compared to Carroll so far, as I genuinely think Best should get more credit and be trusted much more than he is by many people.

 

13 games has and never will be a consistant and long run of goalscoring form in football. We will only know if its a statistical anomily after about 5 times that number of games. Bottom line is Carroll was a lot more important to the team in his period here because he is a better footballer. Assists, goals stats etc will take so far but will never give you a definitive answer when assessing footballers. Assessing players like this should be left to Fat Sam or Dennis Wise

 

So you only know if a striker is good and you only know if it isn't a statistical anomily if he's played at least 65 games?

And 13 games over 3.5 months, crossing from one season to another, isn't a consistant run of form?

Most stupid post of this thread award goes to Warm Pouch. Congratulations.

PS: Why are some people clutching at straws so much to try and criticise Best in any way possible? It honestly seems like people don't want to accept that Best is actually in quite an impressive goalscoring run of form, and just resist it in every way they can.

 

Couldnt be arsed reading all the arguments (got bored some way down the 3rd page), but I see Chappaz's point. Carroll is a target man, Best is a poacher, but in terms of goalscoring, Best might be able to fill the void left by Carroll.

 

By the way, does anyone know which match Best got his one assist? Just doing a little more research into it but I can't find it.

 

Didnt he get one for Lover in the 3-3 at home to West Brom? Flick on.

I've asked OptaJoe to do a H2H of Carroll v Best btw, see if he answers.