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West Ham agree fee in region of £15m with Liverpool for Andy Carroll


Pilko
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Carroll still has the potential to create space. If he's being marked by both CD he comes deeper to pick the ball up in midfield, at least one defender will go with him. But he needs the ball to feet more often than head in such a situation - even if all it means is he becomes the one in a one two. HBA's pass to Nolan against Everton, where Nolan was marginaly offside, and HBA kept running into the box, he was there so quick and in lots of space if Nolan's shot had been spilt or a return pass was coming. So personally speaking I'm sure HBA would improve the game of Carroll just by playing in the hole rather than Nolan.

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I don't wanna be harsh on him because on his day he is quite decent and he is really the only hope we have upfront. Bu Carroll need sto improve the basics like running off the ball...he was as static as Nolan today.

 

He's a player learning, there was nothing for him to do in that match because he was isolated. Fair enough his defensive duties didn't make the grade but really not many would have faired much better the way we played Carroll yesterday. He had no service, Routledge managed only a couple of decent crosses in to the box, but were too far away from Carroll, wrong angles or pace and his only really chance for me came from Jonas and he at least hit the target,  one or two more of them and he might have got a goal.

 

The team 2nd half was atrocious, uninspired crap, we can't expect the young lads to pick us up, it has to come from our captain and senior players but those have shown to be the real problems, ones which show no signs of going away until their contracts run out.

 

You mentioned his movement, but really his movement was typical of the whole front line. Carroll needs a partner to help with the burden, preferably a fast tricky player he can flick and head on too and be set up by. HBA is the only player we've got that matches that description even though he's not a striker but that means dropping Nolan, and that isn't happening apart from injury or hell freezing over.

 

 

 

 

 

I agree with you mostly. Obviously playing up front alone and Hughton's stupid insistence for Nolan to 'support' him contributed to him not beng able to do anything of substance.

 

But putting these factors aside, he too had a poor game (perhaps measured by his earlier performances). What struck me the most was that he wasn't making any runs at all. Surely he realized at some point that it was gonna be difficult for him to outmuscle both Huth and Shawcross, but even when HBA ran to the middle and looked up for a killer pass, Carroll jus remained static. There were just no options for HBA. Compare this to his run against Villa for the last goal. My assessment of him does not depend on him scoring, like against Everton eventhough he didnt score, I thought he had a decent game. Remember that run he made when HBA perhaps passed a split second too late? Carrol had a shot anyway but the keeper saved. Didn't see any of that against Stoke.

 

Agree with Alpal, though he wasn't atrocious by any means IMO.

 

Don't like the idea of having a nippy second forward just so Carroll can flick stuff on to him - it would seriously under-utilise his capabilities and make our team play unnecessarily ugly and one-dimensional stuff.

 

If Carroll had dropped back a bit and collected the ball at his feet, he could have held the ball up and encouraged our relaxed midfield forward a bit more - that was my main gripe. No shame in winning only 50% of your headers when you're facing fucking Stoke - even if you are as good in the air as Carroll is.

 

Relatively speaking a two-game "drought" is nothing, but sure a goal would pick up his confidence which is generally a good thing for a striker :thup:

 

Well the problem with that is that he still isn't very good with the ball at his feet; he always takes a little too long to get the ball under control, which allows defenders to nip it off him.

 

Carroll has improved quite a bit but its still a bit too early in his career for us to rely on him for goals. Our other strikers aren't great, but perhaps Xisco should get a shot in his preferred position.

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Guest Howaythetoon

I still fail to see anything that suggests he's going to be anything other than an extremely limited/average centre-forward. He was shocking against Stoke I thought.

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I still fail to see anything that suggests he's going to be anything other than an extremely limited/average centre-forward. He was shocking against Stoke I thought.

 

He had no support for 90 minutes though,

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He'd be so much better with a proper strike partner.

 

like last season. best stuff from him came with a strike partner like lovenkrands who made runs and opened up space. he can't do it all by himself and certainly not with a Nolan type behind him.

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Time will tell. He isn't a top striker yet but I've been very impressed with him since around February, and he hasn't looked out of his depth in the big league whatsover. Needs legs and intelligence around him to be fully effective in our new system.

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Not picked for the U21s.

 

When is the senior squad announced?

 

Sunday evening I'd imagine.

 

Fingers crossed. Would love to see him at the International stage, although it may be a bit early for him. Time will tell.

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Time will tell. He isn't a top striker yet but I've been very impressed with him since around February, and he hasn't looked out of his depth in the big league whatsover. Needs legs and intelligence around him to be fully effective in our new system.

 

Is totally correct - never going to shine with Nolan as an alleged strike partner  - wrong personnel - I would even prefer shola along side rather than Nolan

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Time will tell. He isn't a top striker yet but I've been very impressed with him since around February, and he hasn't looked out of his depth in the big league whatsover. Needs legs and intelligence around him to be fully effective in our new system.

 

Definitely. We're only getting about 50% out of him as a lone striker. Which is definitely what he is infront of Nolan.

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