Would Newcastle be even better with Carroll?

In fairness Jonesy it it on both NUFC & LFC boards and Terry is one of the few manc supporters who we have decent banter with, would have to agree about Downing crossing the ball to feed Carroll rather than shooting.

 

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Is Downing selfish?

 

Like all top players, Carroll would have been excellent in this team. I rate him very very highly, and think people are too quick to turn on players when they leave our club. He was great when here, but then he's a hoof ball striker when he leaves? That's just bitterness. So yes I think there is no doubt we would have been better. But would we have signed anyone at all without that 35m in the bank? Maybe not. Its worked out well for all parties. We have signed well off the back of it and have improved, Liverpool have an excellent player, and Carroll is at a top club progressing his career.

He is also not very well suited to a long ball game. He is much better with the ball on the deck. When I watched him early season for Liverpool I felt this was the main reason he was struggling (as well as fitness). They fell into an age old trap of booting it at the big front man (carragher in particular). However I thought he was superb against West Brom when they played more his way. Some of the link up with Suarez was magic and I think that could be lethal for Liverpool this season. I would love to still have the fella but what's gone is gone and I wish him well.

 

Carragher is a dinosaur of a centre half; the quicker Jenny gets out the chequebook to replace him, the better

 

Not at all, Ba is way better than Carroll and I don't think we would have signed him if Carroll was still here

 

Completely disagree with your opinion of Carroll, and I thought the same when we had him here too so it is unrelated to any sort of bitterness. Really don't see him fitting into our team now at all and I'm much happier with Ba.
Without wanting to sound smug here, I wanted Ba from only a handful of games into his West Ham stint too, I was pleased when we got him and now I'm even more pleased that we have him because he is a better striker than Carroll is - and he was free!

 

£35bn? ****ing hell, we really did fleece them.

 

This. Although I rate Carroll and really liked him when he was here, I just think he wouldn't fit in this team at all.

Ba is more of a goal threat, quicker, more hardworking and is strong as ****. He isn't any worse than Carroll in the air either

 

Can a mod please remove this from our board. This is only relevant to Newcastle fans and shouldn't be in here. Hammersmithblue, please ensure threads are put in their correct forums in future

 

Carroll has taken time to adapt to our pass and move football, but he finally looks as if he's adapting, with his performances against Wolves and West Brom. Think this deal will turn out well for everyone in the end, a bit like Everton selling Rooney, as they got a couple of good players in for that money he was sold, and actually strengthened as a team and Man Utd obviously got a future world class player, and I can see Carroll being a world class centre forward in future when he adapts to our style of play.

 

Well he's asking if we'd be better off with one of your players right now. You'll know his current ability better than anybody else so it seems pretty Liverpool relevant to me..

 

I actually hope Carroll does turn out to be the player I thought he would be, even though he has stupid hair

 

At least he doesn't have them cornrows anymore!

 

Haha yeah, that was vile when he used to have that lol.

 

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*boke*

 

No way he's **** and I think we all knew when we sold him 35 million was ridiculous.

 

Am I the only one tempted to say yes? Obviously if we hadn't sold Carroll then Nolan/Barton would have stayed (probably meaning we wouldn't have signed Cabaye and Ba and we would therefore have been worse as a team) but if in an ideal world we had kept Carroll and brought in the players we did in summer then would a Carroll/Ba partnership not appeal to anyone?!

IMO he's still better (and if not, will become better) than Leon Best, and people seem to think we've stopped playing the long ball since Carroll left.. we hoof it up the pitch loads.

Unless we get a large proportion of the 35m spent in January there still doesn't seem to be an outweighing benefit in selling Carroll, in my eyes..

I wouldn't want him back, and I'm overjoyed with how we're doing, but I'm not just going to lie out of bitterness...

 

If it's a question for Geordie's then what is this piece of **** article doing on the Liverpool board.

 

That's fair enough Skapel, but some have only turned since he left. Those who didn't rate him like yourself were few and far between. I can't have Ba as a better striker peronally but each to their own. I'm a massive Carroll fan and think he is very underrated and certainly misunderstood in terms of how he likes to play the game. Long ball just doesn't suit him. He can do it effectively for a Nolan type but you're not really getting the best of him. Watching the younger english teams u21 and u19 was a good insight into how he can be utilised effectively in a passing team (451 or 433)

I was glad we signed Ba but slightly concerned by what I saw at the Hammers. He seemed a bit lazy (for all his goal record was great). To be fair though I hadn't seen a lot and was keen to give him time. I thought for free he was good business, I don't think many didn't. His intial showings were a worry to any sane man, but I kept persuading myself to wait. I'm glad I did because he is doing really well. I thought Stoke marked a bit of a watershed so far, in that his all round game came to the table for the first time. He has scored so far and done all right in open play in spells, but he looked well short of the complete package. Last night he ran his socks (there were signs at Blackburn), his hold up play was good, he scored a hatty and was generally excellent. I particularly liked him and Best doing their bit to help the defence. Now of course some would say the fire in his belly was as a result of the Stoke thing but I see no reason he can't continue, it was mainly down to hard work afterall.