My latest blog at throughredspecs.blogspot.com on the Andy Carroll conundrum. Feel free to read it via the link below to see some pictures and give me a bit of traffic! And I'd appreciate your thoughts - cheers
http://throughredspecs.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-yeara-new-start.htmlA LOT of people have been very quick to write off Andy Carroll this season - deciding that he is a flop and a poor signing less than a year into his Liverpool career.
Inevitably when this point is made, reference is also paid to the striker's record breaking price tag, a £35 million fee that shocked the football world.
Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli took a giant leap of faith in paying such a massive fee for a 21-year-old, a player yet to establish himself as a full England international with just five months of regular first team Premiership football to his name.
Never mind that during those five months playing for his hometown club the 6ft 3ins forward showed great potential and went on a prolific goalscoring run, netting an impressive 11 goals in 19 league appearances for a midtable Newcastle side. £35 million is viewed by many football fans and pundits as an amount of money that should only be spent on players of genuine world class pedigree, international superstars of the ilk of Sergio Aguero or Andriy Shevchenko, who have proved their worth beyond doubt season after season.
I suppose that second name looks slightly odd in this context. Because while the Ukrainian is the third-highest scorer in the history of European club competition, a deadly predator who notched 175 goals for A.C. Milan, he took to English football at Chelsea with none of the ease displayed by Aguero during his brief spell at Manchester City so far. Indeed he is the epitome of the big money flop, a player remembered on these shores in the same breath as Juan Sebastián Verón, another star who had an impeccable reputation before he moved to the UK.
What their failure shows is that no player, no matter what their stature in the game, no matter how much they cost, is a completely foolproof signing. Sure-fire hits in the world of football are few and far between - even greats can struggle to adapt to a new team, a new manager, a new way of playing or a new environment.
Personally, I was shocked when both of those superstars struggled to produce their best form for two great teams led by great managers - the Manchester United side at the turn of the century coming off the back of its finest triumph and a truly dominant Chelsea squad with a financial clout never before seen in our domestic game. And their plight was made all the more baffling given they were meant to be the finished article, players in their prime, at the height of their power and the supposed peak of their careers.
Let's get a few things straight. Andy Carroll is not the finished article. He's not at his physical or professional peak. And he certainly isn't playing in a great team (although I would contest Liverpool Football Club certainly has a great manager at the helm).
He is a young player, learning his craft, in a young side that is learning its way. We aren't the Premiership or European Champions - we're not yet even a European side. We are a team undergoing a transitional process, a rebuilding period in which a new manager and new coaching team are bedding six or seven new players into a first team with few positions taken for granted or roles comprehensively fulfilled.
Already this term we have seen our vice-captain and defensive stalwart eased aside in favour of a new central pairing, a new left back, a new central midfield thrust together and forced to cope with the absence of its two best performers through injury, two new wingers, and an ever changing frontline. Reliable veterans look to be losing their grip on first eleven status and several newcomers are battling to prove their worth as their replacements.
I make this point because when a player fails to produce the goods there is always a reason. Good players don't become bad players overnight - Shevchenko and Verón both found it hard to adapt to the pace and physicality of Premiership football, were afflicted by hampering injuries, and in the case of the former, did not seem to have the full backing of their manager. They were both seen as unnecessary and disrupting additions to effective formations and tactics, players who upset the balance of their respective sides and marginalised players who had proven their worth.
At Liverpool there is currently no established system and no set way of achieving results and winning trophies. Half of the squad seem more suited to a continental, short passing game, while the other a more direct, ‘British’ approach. Thrown into this uncertain equation has been Carroll, a player overshadowed by his controversial yet tremendously gifted strike partner, Luis Suarez. More often than not the Uruguayan has been preferred as our first choice striker, and when Carroll has been selected alongside him, Luis has been preferred as the player to lead the line and play furthest forward, in contrast to Carroll's days as the focal point of the Newcastle attack.
It appears he has been asked to play deeper, to reinvent his game, all while finding his feet in an arena where there is little patience and nowhere to hide. And after glimpses of success, after games in which he has shown his promise, he has often been relegated to the bench for the following game. How often has Andy started three consecutive Premiership games, or had an unbroken run in the side? Just once, in the past 10 days.
Certainly he has missed chances. Good chances and great chances, the kind of opportunities he would have buried little over 12 months ago. We can all name his misses that have cost us points and key victories - against Swansea, Fulham, Manchester City, Blackburn and so forth. His lack of confidence in front of goal is all too apparent. But in many games he has fed off scraps.
Against Newcastle at Anfield last week he showed good strength, control, hold up and link up play as we built attacks, and the Kop rewarded him with ripples of encouraging applause. Yet when he hit the box and made the runs that the likes of Joey Barton would have picked out with a pacy diagonal ball from deep or a whipped cross from the by-line, this kind of delivery was nowhere to be seen – as conspicuous by its absence as it has been all season.
Too often our fullbacks and assorted wingers have lofted over high floated balls, crosses that give a defence time to set themselves in anticipation and put the entire onus on the player heading or striking the ball to generate all the power in the effort, along with the necessary direction. And the default alternative appears to be a launched high ball from defence that Andy is expected to work miracles with.
It reminds me of the difficulties the Rafael Benitez side of 2005/06 first experienced when Peter Crouch was introduced into the side, a player whose heading ability was actually nowhere near as impressive as our incumbent number nine. Crouch laboured for months as we lumped it up to him and hit aimless floated balls in his vague direction, leaving fans questioning the wisdom of his signing and wondering why so few players in our team could recognise what sort of player he was and what type of service he required - namely balls on the deck to his feet.
The goals looked like they would never come for him, even though he was a player given the platform to shine week after week in a settled, quality side – a luxury Carroll has seldom experienced. Yet with one goal in December 2005 that all changed, and as we learned how to play to his strengths, he blossomed into a good player. For two years he justified the patience our management and fans had showed in him, and produced the best football of his career.
Fortunately for Carroll, two circumstances have arisen that I feel may bring about a similar change in fortune for him, and make some people at least reconsider their opinion about him and his signing.
The first, clearly less welcome than the other, is the enforced absence of Suarez, which will hopefully give Andy the run in the team he needs to settle into a rhythm, find his form and start producing his best. It should also give those around him regular experience of playing alongside him and working to his strengths, something which is equally as important and brings us to the second factor.
Football is a team game and no team is greater than the sum of its parts, but in our case we have one part arguably greater than any in our history. After another miserable spell on the sidelines, Steven Gerrard made his long-awaited return in the second half against Newcastle. His galvanising effect was immediate, his undoubted quality shining bright every time he touched the ball. He is a player who lifts the crowd, who lifts the team, who leads by example and is capable of raising the belief and performances of those around him. With respect to Charlie Adam, who is a good Premiership footballer, the contrast when he was replaced by a world class attacking talent was stark.
Stewart Downing was lacklustre all evening, Glen Johnson subdued at times, but with Gerrard driving play, both came alive. The player that benefitted the most was Carroll. Gerrard came on for Adam just before the hour and our captain's first involvement saw him whip in a cross which almost found Carroll, a cross delivered at pace into the kind of area that fills a goalkeeper and his defence with dread.
Minutes later Gerrard found Carroll unmarked in the penalty area with a brilliant pass, and while it was not the easiest ball to control, Carroll's touch should have been better. The chance went begging, but the message was clear - this is a combination with great potential.
That potential was so nearly fulfilled when Gerrard unleashed another tremendous cross, kicking across the ball giving it swerve and venom and putting it onto the head of our onrushing frontman.
It was only too predictable that his resultant header crashed against the crossbar - we surely have some kind of quota to reach this season. But in just over half an hour Carroll was presented with possibly the two best passes he has received all year, and went closest to delivering the kind of goal we expected him to serve up on a weekly basis.
Andy must be dreaming of more time on the pitch alongside our best player - perhaps starting tonight in the FA Cup. Gerrard has helped bring the best out of so many attackers, from Michael Owen to Peter Crouch to Fernando Torres, and with him on the pitch the quality of service to our attack steps up to an entirely new level.
Andy Carroll may not join that list – the doubters may be right to group him with the Shevchenko’s of this world. But I firmly believe he deserves the chance to prove himself before he is written off as a costly mistake, and hope that given the opportunity he will start to show why the prospect of him succeeding in a Red shirt is not just a farfetched fantasy.
