A very.. Touching Blog here about Andy Carroll's improvement over the last month or so. http://thekop.liverpoolfc.tv/_The-improvement-of-Andy-Carroll/blog/5793297/173471.ht "When Andy Carroll came to Liverpool FC about a year ago, I was not one of his biggest fans, I must admit that I more or less slated him in several of my blog posts. But after the Brighton game, where Big Andy was elected Man of The Match, I think I owe Andy Carroll an apology. I was so wrong last year, and if Andy Carroll reads this (which he probably isn't) then I will express my most humble apology, for having slated Andy Carroll's good name and reputation. I would never in my wildest dreams have thought that Big Andy could improve as much as he have done during the past year, and to be elected Man of The Match in a 6-1 victory. And also the match where Downing got his first assist to Andy Carroll's goal." "The Andy Carroll I saw in the beginning of his career at Liverpool FC was a lazy and no good clumsy player, whom I believed didn't deserve to wear our famous red jersey. But in the last games, where King Kenny had to give Andy Carroll playing-time, because of Luis Suarez 8 match ban. Andy Carroll has really proved me to be wrong. And I want to apologize to the people on the Kop that I called âCarroll loversâ, I am sorry and I was wrong, and you were right. Andy Carroll has shown to be an asset that is worthy of playing among the starting 11, every game. I am sorry for all our arguments and I was the one who was too quickly do slate Andy Carroll, without having given him the chance. And you should be proud of yourself, for standing by Andy Carroll in all the bad times." "I know that I am not the only one who has been slating Andy Carroll, there are many others, and I have already apologized once, and I got so much stick, that I didn't write a blog post for 3 weeks, because I was afraid of being rated down to one star, because of the argument that we had. But now all that is in the past. What I really want to say with this blog post is not so much an apology, because I have apologized before. But I want to praise Andy Carroll and tell all of us Carroll doubters that we were wrong." "The way Andy Carroll was playing against Brighton was outstanding, and he has really gotten confidence, and it is just like the case with Lucas, where everybody was slating him in the beginning. But in Carroll's case, thank God for King Kenny, because he kept on believing in Andy Carroll, no matter how bad he was playing, and he even punished Andy Carroll if he had a bad game, and was too lazy and did not give himself 100%, and in the next match he was on the bench. But Andy Carroll did not give up. He kept on working with a price-tag on his shoulders where it said £35 million, but in fact, then we only paid £1,7 million for him, when you consider that we got £50 millions for Torres and look at Torres now. He can't even be compared to Andy Carroll who is much better than Torres is at the moment." "Andy Carroll scored one goal against Brighton and assisted another one to Luis Suarez, and he was running his socks of to make havoc in the Brighton defense, and he did it so well, that Brighton was under so much pressure that they scored 3 own-goals. I know that Andy Carroll had no part in the 3 own-goals, but the first one was because of a header by Johnson and the second was Gerrard who used a Brighton defender to reflect the ball in to goal, and it was superbly done by Gerrard and he should have the goal in his name, because he did it on purpose. But Andy Carroll's improvement is clear to see for every Liverpool supporter, and he deserved to be elected Man of The Match, because of the energy he put in his game, and for his perfect goal and his assist to Suarez." "So to all those who I have been arguing about whether Andy Carroll would come good or not, you were right and I was wrong, and lets not be enemies anymore. Let's instead be brothers and sisters in the World-wide family that the Liverpool supporters are together in, no matter what the color of your skin is and what walks of life you come from." "Yesterday was the first time we played Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll together, and look how it panned out! I think that King Kenny should keep playing this deadly trio in all the games that is left of the season, because look what it brought us. The biggest victory of the season. And all though Brighton is only a Championship team, then lets not forget that they might be in the Premier League next season. And it was their first defeat in 2012, and then with a scoreline that says 6-1. It was amazing." "I would like to have a look at the form of the teams that are playing for the 4th spot, and use the results in the FA Cup to measure the teams. First we have Newcastle who was sent our of the FA Cup by our opponents yesterday, Brighton and Hove Albion. It says it self with the victory and the way that Liverpool won, that Liverpool is in much better shape than Newcastle." "Arsenal lost 0-2 to Sunderland and earlier last week they lost 0-4 to AC Milan in the Champions League, so their form is not good. And their next game is against Tottenham. And The Spurs didn't exactly shine in their match against Stevenage, they couldn't score and the match ended 0-0, which must be the biggest sensation in the FA Cup this season. I don't even know in which league Stevenage is playing but I think it must be Liga 2 or something like it." "Chelsea played 1-1 at home against Birmingham, and is going to play a re-match against Birmingham, and by the look of that, then Chelsea don't look like they are in a good shape. So I think that we could say that of the four teams that are rivals to get the 4th spot in the Premier League. Liverpool is the team in the best form. Now all we need is consistency. Liverpool and Andy Carroll is going to keep playing as good as they did against Brighton in the 5th round of the FA Cup, and if we do, then we will win both domestic cups and end on the 4th spot and qualify for Champions League next season." "Let's start by winning the Carling Cup on Sunday. If we play like we did yesterday, then Cardiff City don't stand a chance, and they will be run over by Liverpool FC, and we will win our first throphy since 2006, where we won our last throphy the FA Cup. But when we have won the Carling Cup, then lets move on in the same style as we did yesterday. And I am sure that the Cardiff players saw the game, and they must be very scared of what is going to happen to them come Sunday. Lets beat them 5-0. We can do it, if we really want. And do we want it?" "Before you rate this blog post, then please pay attention, that I have already given Andy Carroll and his supporters one apology, and I got so much stick, and was downrated all the way down to 3 stars, so if you can't understand, that I have been downrated once, then please think about it before you rate this blog post. This blog post was made to aknowledge the fantastic perfomance and improvement of Andy Carroll in recent games, and it is not entirely an apology to Andy Carroll, because I have done that already. And the way I was treated, can only be described as directly evil. I know that I have at least one enemy on the Kop, who constantly rates all my blog posts with only one star. And I know who it is. And I pity this, - or these person(s). Grow up and move on. So if you can't rate this blog post with 5 stars, then please don't rate it at all. Thank you!" "Thank you for your time, please leave a comment and rate, on your way out. I would really appreciate it." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Errrr.. Actually quite a good article and states some very good points, that's if you ignore the grovelling throughout the whole blog Carroll has improved a lot there's no doubt about it, but he still has a long way to come but it's great to see people starting to get behind him again, and for me he's shown enough to convince me he has a future at the club. Carroll himself stated that he finally feels like he's arrived at Liverpool, let's just hope he continues the progress he's making
Ha thanks for that, it's a funny/tragic blog but like you say makes some good points. I feel sorry for some football fans these days. With all the forums and social networking sites it seems a lot of people struggle to just enjoy being a fan. There have been difficult moments this season, but largely i've just been enjoying how good things are compared to last season. I think a cup or two and nicking 4th would represent a great season, especially as there are still players settling into the club. Add to having half a new team the fact that Lucas was seriously injured (how many would have thought we'd be saying that a few season ago) and that probably our most talented player Suarez was banned for 9 games in a row, and it doesn't look nearly as bleak as the occasional glance on twitter might tell you. I think the same applies to Andy Carroll. Without being smug over the fact I've always said he will come good (though of course it has only been a few games anyway) i think i had faith in him in the same way i have faith in the whole team/squad. The appalling tabloids in this country release their articles over how he was a waste of money and every fan repeats it over the internet and people get bombarded after 5 games. Yet if we're sensible then we can see that Carroll was/is likely to come good. Strikers of a similar style tend to develop later in their careers, Andy is a young man clearly with a few issues and he was leaving his home town club so was always going to take time to settle, he had an injury when he first joined and has seemingly struggled to get match sharpness, and he was not just adapting to new teammates but a new footballing philosophy. Is it really any surprise he wasn't banging goals in from the off? That said the seeds were there in the Man City performance last season, and tough away games like Arsenal, Everton and West Brom this season where lo and behold we won despite some trying really hard to pick at every mistake. I'm personally looking forward to seeing Andy's value in tough European 2nd legs where we need the ball to stick up front and relieve some pressure. Also he is a completely different option from most other forwards, which means we're always going to have a plan B. Mainly though I no longer worry about whether he's going to have a bad game and get stick for it, i can just accept him as part of the team and watch him become more and more dangerous.
by the look of his picture, he's a 40-something living either on his own, or with his mother. His walls (behind him in the picture) are done up like a 12-year-old's bedroom. I hope to god it isn't his bedroom, anyway... I do sometimes wonder at the wisdom of allowing some 'fans' to write blogs. Given the levels of illiteracy demonstrated in the blog, I assume he doesn't draught important legislation or legal documentation. I wouldn't want him near my house deeds...
Carrolls got a long way to go yet before we should start heaping on the praise. He's had two or so good games recently but let's face it, he couldn't have played worse than he had done. Skrtel is a man on top form whereas Carroll is just become slightly less of a passenger at the moment. Here's hoping he continues to pick up speed as the season continues
Amen All of it's true. On the Arsenal board in particular, they appear only to be able to think and talk about how aiming for 4th is somehow totally unacceptable. As A younger Spurs fan I've only known fairly mediocre teams up until about 3 years ago but that's never stopped me from enjoying every game I go to or being proud to be a Spurs fan. There's too many armchair fans these days that think only about trophies and success, not because of any real pride for the club but more for internet bragging rights. They think that because they took their team to the treble on Champ Man or FIFA means that they shouldn't expect less from their team in real life. Expectation is always inflated for every football fan and the reality is rarely as peachy but that's not necessarily a bad thing, we all do it. When you put too much importance where you expect your club to be, you forget the excitement every matchday brings and the joy of seeing your team scoring, which as a fan should blow any negative thoughts out of the water for the time being. On the subject of Carroll he is improving and I'm sure he'll receive the full backing of the stands even in a bad performance. At Spurs we've usually struggled to meet expectation which is predominantly due to having rather a lot of average players but if they're applying themselves and working their socks off for the team they will always have our support. I'm sure that's the same at Liverpool, we both have our cult heroes who weren't necessarily our best players but they'll never be forgotten and never have to pay for a drink when they're in town.
No doubt he will keep improving now a few things seem to be falling for him - his effort has increased so much in recent weeks which is not surprising that he has had an improvement in form as a result.
Reckon it's five or six good games on the bounce now. That is indicative of progression. Importantly, he actually looks like he's enjoying playing now.
I don't doubt he's playing better, just that there are others more deserving of our praise at this moment. I don't think Carroll's been good enough yet to warrant this much attention, even though I know we're all desperately wanting him to come good and hanging on his every touch. If he continues to progress at this rate till the end of the season (which I would love) then by all means let the compliments flow, and I will join in
The link was on the Liverpool website, Can't remember the writer but I'll sure be looking out for more of his blogs.
Isn't it enough to just write...Carrolls playing better recently, wasn't sure about him but now he looks quite good gave up reading after he put..."if Andy is reading this"
