Really starting to feel sorry for the big fella....It's not his fault that we paid a silly figure for him and when we play him, we rarely play to his strengths. He looked unplayable last night in the air (looked more like a rugby match whenever the ball got near him!), held the ball up very well, ran his socks off up front alone and his distribution was simple...which is all it needs to be.....I lost count of how many times we failed to find him in the box....and it wasn't just yesterday, it's been all season.....it drives me mad! I don't care if you like the style of football we should play or not.....my point is, if we play Carroll, we should play to his strengths. Also noted Brad Friedel's comment on Downing yesterday - he reckons that he had issues settling in at Villa but will come good and is a 'very good player' - I think we've started to see this lately. Would welcome your views YNWA
I have been most impressed with AC's touch and control. Such a massive improvement from his earlier days where he looked like a Sunday league player. But now, he can bring the ball out of the air, control it and find the nearest player. I don't have the stats but I believe he won most of his duels last night. Another point - our corners actually looked threatening last night!
He needs to be consistent but he isn't the exception to this rule. the whole team needs to be consistent. The only consistent players this season have been Lucas, Skrtel, Agger & Johnson. 2 of which have been injured for periods. If we can perform well consistently and stop hitting the F**KING WOODWORK we might not have to do too much in the summer before going for a top 4 finish next season. A Striker is still needed though
If Carroll produces last night's form against Everton then we will have a great advantage. What we saw last night is what the majority of us have been hoping for all season.
I'm just not a fan of him and the way he plays, regardless of his fee. Sometimes I can see he makes the effort but other times he fails to make runs into the box and rants at players left, right and centre. I can't see him being a part of our starting XI to be honest next season if we want to make top 4 and don't see what he'd bring to us as a 'super-sub'.
Thought he was decent again last night, although once again he was consistently fouled throughout the game and the ref did nothing.
I think his failure to make runs in to the box is confidence based, with the right training that can be coached. I can't ever see him as being undroppable but if he can stick a few more goals in by the end of the season i'll be happy with his first full season
Didn't really post what I was thinking, was going to mention that once carroll starts to get treated fairly by refs then he will be able to have a bigger impact. The ref saw Grant hanley foul carroll 5 times in the second half last night, FIVE fouls by one player on another in one half of football.
I just looked again and found that I completely miss-read your post! I thought you meant that Carroll was constantly fouling throughout the match rather than being fouled. Silly me!
I think he's looked good his past few games, the 3 of Carrol, Suarez and Gerrard worked well against Everton then he got dropped, I don't understand that.
Oh, I don't know. You can both happily misunderstand each other. Seriously. Carroll's price tag is irrelevant, we all know that it wasn't an accurate assessment of his real, or even perceived, value. I thought he had a good game last night. He should have scored with the earlier header and therein, for me, lies the problem that he still needs to work on. He doesn't attack the ball strongly enough. Every other aspect of his play was pretty good and hopefully he can keep on improving.
I think the pressure and expectation got the better of him. At Newcastle he was an academy player who got praise just for getting in the first XI for a while then gradually grew into the role of the number 9 shirt. At Liverpool he had the weight of the transfer fee, which shouldn't matter, but does increase expectation. He's still young and i think he has talents which are rare in the league, on his day he's almost unplayable and similar to Drogba (who didn't get his big move until he was in his mid-20's). I just think he went too soon. Another year or two at Newcastle to hone his skills and get confidence that he can do it week-in week-out and he'd have gone to Liverpool a better player. Still think that in another year or two he'll be one of the first names on the teamsheet for you.
You make a good point about Drogba, he was a late developer. I'm not sure Andy has the mentality to be the battering ram that DD became, but he does have a lot of potential. We'll see...
He looked good with Shelvey playing behind him. Shelvey was in the right place for the knock downs and supported him. Agree with Terrifictraore, Carroll gets fouled all the time. Defenders climb all over him, stopping him from jumping for the ball and yet if Carroll even slightly nudges a defender the ref give the foul straight away.
I also think that on alot of set peices then you have a better chance of scoring just by having him on the pitch. We used to be the same with Shearer, he'd get marked, sometimes double-marked, and have the eye of half the penalty box then someone like solano or speed would end up with the space to knock it in the net. Carroll was like that for us last season, Nolan scored all the time from corners when Carroll was there. Its not just about scoring, though he does need to bang in a few more for his confidence.
He needs more support in the box most of the time if hes to get a sniff at goal.We arent putting players in the box as often as id like to see, at times this season we have 2-3 players up in the box vs 5/6. Last night Carroll did a good job of covering the midfield and laying off when hitting blackburn on the counter.Its a shame he wasnt further up to be more involved and getting a few shots.Guess thats just how it panned out with 10 men.
