Part of me still loves Carroll

As much as I tried, I could not bring myself to hate Andy Carroll. I despise the idiots that still boo him and sing stupid songs at him, I really do. Surely by now people have realised that booing ex-players just makes them more likely to score against us which is what Carroll nearly did twice.

Anyways, If we were offered Carroll for a reasonable price like 5-7m, I'd take him back.

I'd much rather have him as a 3rd choice striker than Shola or Best.

I still think Carroll loves Newcastle. And when he's in form and playing with passion like he did when he was with us, he's unplayable.

He's much better than anyone in our team at the moment in the air. He wins almost everything and his knock downs are usually good.

Even though our current football is good, sometimes you need a plan B, and I've seen us, even in recent games, revert back to long balls and it doesn't work with Ba and Cisse as neither are that great at winning in the air vs CB, and neither are the same level of physical presence as Carroll is.

 

Which part?

 

First of all, I disagree that singing the songs will make him score against us, Carroll was rattled (BADLY) in the last match, if he wasn't he WOULD have scored, and not feebly gone to ground. What it will mean, is we'll look silly if and when he does score against us, but at the end of the day, people pay their money, they can sing what they like...

Liverpool bought him as an investment, they wouldn't sell him on at a 7th of his original value, it would be a horrendous financial decision by them! Also, he's young and English, I doubt you could buy Carlton Cole for £5m!

I personally think Best is better at bringing the ball under control from the air than Carroll. Carroll was great with Nolan playing off him, but as we've seen at Liverpool, he doesn't seem able to adapt to different systems!

Finally, I think this season has shown us that our plan B doesn't neccessarily have to be route one! We've played 4,5,1/4,4,2 and most recently 4,3,3 and all have worked, we brought in creative players like Ben Arfa and Cabaye so we didn't have to simply boot the ball away, we have a great ball playing centre back in Coloccini and if and when we do launch it, recently its been into the channels for our strikers to run onto, its not pretty, but its much prettier than what we were playing last season!

 

Impressive statement, i agree.

If he did become availiable for 5-7 mil... I would take him back though but it won't happen.

 

I still love Michael Owen.

 

Sad, very sad.

 

I still love Albert Luque...

 

Oh boy, to each his own I suppose.

 

Boumsong was world class IMHO.

 

I still think Xisco could do a job at the front of our midfield three.

 

Have to get you and ACS a job with Sunderland as scouts.

 

I thought Jon Dahl Tomasson was prolific for us mind

 

Our fault not his, he was never a lone striker and we were stupid to play a young striker like that. Not that he's bothered, his records with Feyenoord, Milan and the national team are pretty nice.

 

We could give Smith a contract again too. He was a lethal striker.

 

Didn't mind him before the match, but the way he tried to screw Newcastle over, I do hate him now. He deserved the boos and songs.

You don't try to get a keeper sent off when you could quite easily just score, especially against a team you supposedly support and love. Cheating bellend.

Wouldn't have him back any more either.

 

His attitude isnt good enough for me, he would come back and continue the same antics. The last thing we want to do is change the team spirit.

 

Geremi was the guy for me, what a player.

 

Then perhaps it worked in Carroll's case, but when it comes to ex-players in general, we shouldn't boo them really, because most of the time they play a blinder against us and/or score.

And I don't think it's fair to say he can't adapt to different systems.

Carroll is a target man, Liverpool weren't giving him the right service or playing to his strengths, they were trying to make him play like Suarez. He's not as technical as Cisse and Ba, but I don't like the assumption some people make that he's just not technical at all and useless if not used in a hoofball game.

He gets a lot of undeserved stick at times, and constantly sets up great chances for team mates from knock downs and plays a part in some of Liverpool's build up play. He'll back up against 2 CB's, hold them off, draw defenders and play a pass.

I'd still rather have Carroll than Best but everyone has an opinion. You're right when you say Best is probably better at controlling the ball on his chest and taking it down, but Carroll is class at flicking it on or finding someone from a knock down, and he takes a lot more marking against than Best.

If we had some injuries, I could see us playing something like this -

---------Carroll------------
---Cisse------Ben Arfa-----

--Jonas--Tiote--Cabaye---

With Carroll knocking down balls to Cisse and Ben Arfa who can control a knock down.

Carroll isn't just a battering ram, he can draw defenders in, he's a nightmare to defend against, and he can open up space for Ben Arfa and Cisse.

Imagine them trying to mark a 6ft 4 power house, a quick skillster like Ben Arfa and also a brilliant striker like Cisse at once?

It's a potentially perfect up front three on the right day.

A lot of the reason Carroll did well with us is he was playing with passion, throwing himself at things, being brave and working hard. He doesn't do that nearly as much at Liverpool

 

I don't think he tried to screw us over, I think he went down on purpose. He was too scared to score against us or just didn't have the heart to.

 

Just like Chopra.