By dedlfc
First of all I must say I like many of the qualities Andy Carroll has to offer and know that with the right service he will score a lot of goals for us.
I have my reservations about his ability to keep up with play which may seem a bit harsh as he has been fighting with injuries throughout his short time at LFC.
We had the option to take the money from the sale of Torres in January and bide our time until summer to look for the quality player to play alongside the mercurial Suarez.
I understand the club’s stance that they didn’t want to go through the last quarter of the season with just Suarez and Ngog as the main strikers – what has happened since January is that Dirk Kuyt has re-emerged as a viable alternative to play with Suarez through their knowledge of Dutch football and their respect for each other’s game.
With Suarez and Kuyt playing the majority of the games since January the need for Carroll has not been as important except in one game vs Man City
This was shown in the constant running and movement against Man Utd, Fulham, Birmingham etc., this type of play is not what you can see Carroll being able to produce because he is a different type of player but to cause teams problems it has been proven that pace and speed of thought are the main ingredients.
Now it seems that Sergio “Kun” Aguero has now announced he is ready to play in the Premiership and LFC and Man City are going to bid close to £40m for his services – I just feel that if we had not gone so hastily for Carroll we may have put ourselves in a better position to sign Aguero – who is world class and would compliment Suarez’s silky skills with his pace and speed of thought.
Interested to know what other LFC fans think?
By dedlfc
Carroll has his qualities and as you righty point out those qualities will be accentuated with quality service from the flanks. When we have quality from the wide areas next season the Carroll will be more potent simply because the crosses will be delivered in the opposing area rather than long punts up from defence.
ReplyDeleteRight now, Liverpool’s build-up is based around the players that are available and hence to the team’s strengths, hard running of Kuyt et al alongside the intricate skills of Suarez and the abilities of Meireles. Carroll’s perceived lack of mobility is made more noticeable within a formation not set up to make use of his most potent attribute his heading ability and also the lack of great passer in midfield often means that he doesn’t receive balls below the neck line where he would be asked to hold the ball up, so he often appears on the periphery of the game.
Andy Carroll offers Liverpool a different dimension to anything we have available at the moment and when he gets the service he is basically unplayable. As you rightly say, he was effective against Man City, but I would actually say he was devastating against a backline which was one of the stingiest all season. We need to be unpredictable in terms of our line-up or at least offer multiple threats as opposed to Arsenal who don’t really have a physical nature to their play let alone a physical presence upfront.
David, Good post, some interesting issues made.
ReplyDeleteHindsight is always easy to look back on and say what we should've done, but put yourself in Kenny's shoes in January, we were hopeless upfront and was in dire need of at least two very good forwards. So when Suarez came along, we didn't want another similar player, we needed someone who could hold the ball up and provide and aerial threat. On paper the two signings complimented each other perfectly and I for one agree with why Kenny signed them, they were not just to try and get the club quickly back up the table but more importantly investments for the future.
Regarding the tactical element of the game, whether Carroll is quick enough should not be a factor if the right wide men are purchased. Fast attacking football should not effect the target man. Why? Because the two wide men will break away quickly and the inside forward (Suarez) will make the forward run. Very much like how Messi play's on the shoulder of the last defender. If you have an attacking midfielder who can over lap a forward run then that's 4 players getting forward on a counter attack. An old fashioned centre forward is there to take the heat off the inside forward and leave the gaps for him to run in. Plus, the percentage of goals that are scored from set pieces is around 40% on average. With Carroll in the box for every corner or free kick then with his height and huge presence he will always take 2-3 defenders out of the game. I know Carroll does not have the quickest pace but he is no means slow! He is still quite sharp over 10 yards which is all he needs in and around the box. If we were to have Aguero and Suarez together then the wide men would be wasted putting crosses into the box, we then would have to play the ball along the ground all game and we don't have enough quality from the back 4 to operate like that.
However, £35 million is a lot of money and although I say it's an investment, it's also a lot of money to waste when we're a club that can't afford to throw money away. I'm not going to judge Carroll yet because he was injured and only played for part of it, I'm going to pretend that next season's fitter, stronger and eager Carroll is like a new summer signing in itself!!
Prince of Leon
It seemed like a hesitation move from Dalglish to go for Carrol at the time Torres was drifting away from Afield. However, it is done now.
ReplyDeleteHe has been brought in to be a line-leading striker for us. Though conventionally held to have that most precious quality for any big man who takes to a football field, a neat touch, it is an aerial, physical, old fashion kind of striker, not in contrast to most European players tippy-tappy schooled continental fancy-denary.
Yes he does have quality and he will score goals for us, when the right wide men are purchased, or from the centre, but we do not want to get in the habit of the long ball like we did with Peter Crouch.
The key is having intelligence and speed, both of execution and of thought, hopefully we will see this next season.
A good spell in Man City game, but due to injuries no consistent run of games yet, so I would like to see the £35M striker who has scored 36 goals in 11 appearances.
He should prove his ability in the first season.