The problem is he's nothing like an orthadox winger. His qualities are his workrate, ability to carry the ball and take people on and his reasonable short passing game. We play basically a 4-4-2 with a target man and 2 natural wingers, yet when you have 2 wingers with questionable end product this means when things aren't going our way the numbers game of simply getting it wide and hoying it into the box is going to cause a lot of frustration.
This is why Nolan is the problem for me. He offers nothing in that second striker role, his only positive is being a half decent goal poacher. Replace him with Ben Arfa to properly play the role in behind Carroll and it will give both Routledge and Jonas a get out, an axis to play off and get the best out of their abilities. Having a proper #10 benefits Carroll aswell because it means we have somebody who can get onto the ball when Carroll wins almost everything in the air.
We'd look a much better allround team without Nolan, I'm sure of it.