Wow. Very surprised by the opinions in this thread. Thought Carroll was our worst player today.
Yeah, he holds the ball up fine and he's pretty good in the air, but an old-school target man is not what we need and so much else was bad from him. I'm not talking about the missed penalty although it was a pretty poor effort. Twice in the first half he deliberately went down in their box in some half-arsed attempt to win a penalty instead of staying on his feet and trying to get a shot off. There was that time he played a through ball to Bellamy who dashed up the wing, pulled up, and then had to smash the ball towards Maxi on the other wing because Carroll was still meandering up the middle with his patented casual slow jog and wasn't in a position to receive the cross. Much the same thing happened on at least one other occasion. His laziness was driving me wild. I also thought he looked pretty clumsy. There were several occasions I can remember where he gave the ball away with bad touches, while cutting the Chelsea player down for the free kick right in front of our box was also not the best contribution.
A shame because our other two recent additions, Henderson and Coates, both had great games I thought. I've been a bit unsure about Henderson and unlike many others thought he was poor against City. But he was good tonight and showed flashes of what he could become. I agree with the idea that he's the new Lucas, raw and untrained at the moment and an easy scapegoat, but with all the potential to become a great player. I hope Carroll can succeed for us, but I don't see it at the moment. I see a player not able to cope in a system of play where pace and fluidity are essential, and I don't think he'll be able to acquire those things.
