Andy Carroll - Best Striker in the World

[Roboklopp]

Problem is that a lot of us who had serious doubts about Carroll when he was bought- and obviously still do- aren't the types to jump in players' backs & gave the likes of Lucas plenty of support over the years.

Re Craig's decoy point- surely making excuses again. Fat Sam used to play Samba up top & Moaninhio Huth to create space. We couldve chucked a fraction the amount we spent at Zat Knight or Zigic or someone. There's no getting away fromnthr fact that, as many of us predicted, both Carroll & Downing have thus far been extremely disappointing - and that's being polite.

[Craig_H]

How's it an excuse? FLMAO...if he does something that leads to chances then he's doing (part of) his job.

[BootRoom]

So Carroll is impersonating a premiership footballer in order to act as a decoy and divert attention away from the real footballers? That’s a fiendishly cunning plan!



Here's the decoy, sir.

[The Birdman]

I agree completey with Craig on this one.
Yes Carroll could/should be doing better we all think that, however for a start we aren't using him properly as our crossing from open play and set pieces has to be some of the worst in the PL.
Carroll creates space for others by being a prescence, our problem is that for some reason known only to Kenny and the staff we don't ever have more than 3 people in the box, usually less than that so it is easy to nulify Carroll.
I think if Lucas had not been injured we'd have Gerrard maurading off Carroll but Adam has just been terrible, Henderson isn't a sitting midfielder and Spearing isn't Liverpool class so we've had to play Stevie in a central role not off the front.

Carroll will become a top quality centre forward and I just hope we show the patience with him for it be with us

[kris90210]

Carroll worrying defenders works in two ways. Against City the fact that Carroll has no pace or touch meant they were quite comfortable to play an extremely high line. They probably do pay more attention to him in the box, but it's not like this has really paid dividends for us.

He's been pretty woeful so far, however you look at it

[Roboklopp]

How's it an excuse? FLMAO...if he does something that leads to chances then he's doing (part of) his job.

It is a very small part mate, surely you can see that's what Im getting at? Like if someone fills in their timesheets for flexitime but does very little else, telling their boss "well, I've filled in my hours" would be little more than excuse.

I agree that he needs more support & find it very odd he isnt getting starts in the absences of Suarz though. But even allowing for the lack of support, he isnt attacking the ball & defences enough. For NUFC, he was barrelling into 3 defenders & leaving them for dead, now he seems not to be able to negociate his own shoelaces FFS.

[The Birdman]

Carroll worrying defenders works in two ways. Against City the fact that Carroll has no pace or touch meant they were quite comfortable to play an extremely high line. They probably do pay more attention to him in the box, but it's not like this has really paid dividends for us.

He's been pretty woeful so far, however you look at it

You're right about the high line, which is why we need some pace to threaten teams in behind, if Gerrard was playing off Carroll teams would naturally be a bit deeper which would mean more space infront of AC, easier to find his chest or balls to feet and consequently Carroll's knock downs etc... will be closer to the oppositions 18 yard box.
I'm not blindly defending Carroll but he has all the attributes to be a very effective centre forward.
We (the fans) need to keep supporting him imo because effort and application is there, he has missed a few chances he should have scored but he's also been really unlucky with a lot more.

[Kloppster]

Carroll at the moment is completely flat footed. Watching Dzeko last night it was clear he's constantly on his toes, moving/ready to move/ready to turn, and his control is light when on the run. Carroll plays like he has lead feet. The guy needs to do some boxing training or even 'Strictly Dancing', something to make him lighter on his feet

[~LFCHistory~]

He needs a run of 50 games.

[Lecter]

Suarez & Carroll | High price, high hopes
January 18, 2012 8:48 am AnfieldIndex 473 Views Featured, Liverpool, Statistical Comparisons

Almost one year on after Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll joined Liverpool FC in an astonishing January transfer window, that also saw the much loved Fernando Torres depart for a record fee of £50m, we’re going to look at how the £57m duo have performed for Liverpool FC over the last year.

We’re going to be using our Statistical Comparison area from our Opta Stats Centre (Subscribe Now) to show how they’ve got on for the second half of last season and the first half of this season. Both players came at a very high price and even though they were paid for with the income from the Torres deal to Chelsea this should not be used as a reason to justify their cost. Liverpool have spent a record amount on two players and the expectancy from the fans is inevitable.

Andy Carroll Statistics
Let’s have a look at Andy Carroll’s stats from last year to this year.



Current Season | Last Season

In all honesty Andy hasn’t really played many games for Liverpool FC. Last season (on the right) was mainly due to his injury issues however he’s started just over half of Liverpool’s games this season mainly due to his form and the change to the shape of the team when Andy plays. Andy has played a combined 1,492 minutes so far in his Premier League career for Liverpool. This is equivalent to just over 16 and a half matches.

Let’s take a look at this shooting stats, courtesy of our Statistical Comparison area:



Current Season | Last Season

So just four goals in 16 starts for Andy Carroll resulting in one goal every four games for Liverpool in the Premier League. I honestly thought it was much worse than that but to be fair to Andy it’s not really a lot of games to judge on. He actually had a better statistical record last year by scoring those two goals against Manchester City. Unfortunately his chance conversion this season (6%) is one of the poorest in the Liverpool squad. Suarez isn’t far off this number but we’ll get to that in a little while.

His shooting accuracy has dropped from 54% to 39% this year however he’s attempting more shots as he’s averaging a shot on goal every 29 minutes this season. The unfortunate part is that he’s managing one on target every 75 minutes. He was hitting the target every 64 minutes last year. The minutes to goals statistic works out at a goal every 373 minutes. Simply not good enough for a striker.

You can argue that the service to Carroll hasn’t been good enough but the three attempts he’s managed against the woodwork this season really should have found the back of the net. A few of them have been headers a few yards out that you’d expect him to finish.

Luis Suarez Statistics
So we move onto Luis Suarez. We’re not going to go into any mentions of any of the controversies in the last month and are going to be solely concentrating on the football statistics. Just thought we’d get that one out of the way.

Luis Suarez has been said to be a revelation at Liverpool FC. Every time he has played he has added a lot more to the Liverpool attacks, more in terms of creation than goal scoring and we’ll go on to his stats to see how he’s done in the Premier League since joining Liverpool FC.



Current Season | Last Season

Since he joined Liverpool, Luis Suarez has started 29 matches and played 2,568 minutes of football. He’s pretty much played every game and only been rested a few times. Once against Arsenal springs to mind and then just when he joined he didn’t play against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Apart from that he’s pretty much played every game that he’s been available for.



Current Season | Last Season

So in those 29 games Suarez has scored 9 goals in the Premier League. For a striker, again, it’s not a very good come back. You’d expect a striker to around 13-17 goals if they were to be classed as an out and out goal scorer. So if we go by these Opta stats, Suarez is obviously not an out and out goalscorer. In the last year Suarez has had 116 attempts at goal (these do not include blocked shots, only shots on target and off target are used in our Comparisons) with 52 of them being on target therefore achieving a shooting accuracy of approximately 45%. This is not such a bad figure, the real draw back of Suarez is his chance conversion. If Andy Carroll’s is bad at 6%, then Luis Suarez isn’t far behind at all this season with a 7% chance conversion. He didn’t do much better last year either as he converted on 9% of his chances.

Suarez has also hit the woodwork seven times since joining the club. However his strikes against the woodwork have been a little different to Andy’s (who is usually hitting the crossbar from headers around the six yard box) as he’s had his shots tipped onto posts more often than not. Still this is not an excuse for Suarez he should be finishing the chances and not giving the keepers a chance with his finishes.

So from a goalscoring point of view Luis Suarez cannot be deemed a success statistically however the reason why Suarez is much loved by the Kop and why he is renowned as one of the most dangerous players in the league is because of his ability to create chances for himself and his team mates. A fair percentage of his shots on goal are created by himself, we don’t have any stats to back this up right now (maybe Opta can start to do a self-chance creation stat?) but he has the ability to turn and beat players at any time. Over the last year he has completed dribbled past or beaten an opponent 79 times which shows his ability to beat a man. I think you’ll find it difficult to get another striker with that number.



Current Season | Last Season

Suarez has created 61 chances for his Liverpool team mates over the last year. A very good amount for a striker. Remember these do not include the amount of chances Luis Suarez creates for himself and I believe that would add a fair amount onto that total. He’s creating a chance every 42 minutes for his team mates however we’ve watched every Liverpool game since Suarez joined and we can tell you that he’s been in a position where he’s beaten a player and looks up and there is absolutely nobody supporting in the box or getting on the end of an excellent ball across the six yard box. None of these will be counted in the stats above so there is plenty to be satisfied with when it comes to Luis.

Clear Cut Chances
Opta have a clear cut chances statistic which we’re going to briefly analyse now for Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez.

Since joining the club Suarez has scored 7 out of 21 clear cut chances and Andy Carroll has scored 2 out of 12. Suarez has therefore converted 33% of his clear cut chances which isn’t too bad however Andy Carroll has converted just over 16.5% of his, which is almost half of his colleagues return. Both of these figures should really be much higher as a clear cut chance is one that is either a one on one or a free header / no pressure shot on goal.

How are their rivals doing so far this season:

Van Persie: 9/21 = 43%
Rooney: 7/12 = 58%
Aguero: 10/18 = 56%
Demba Ba: 5/13 = 38%

As you can see the Liverpool FC strikers are guilty of not taking their clear cut chances as well as their rivals either!

Summary
It’s going to be harsh to read (and for me to write), but I don’t believe the stats are lying on this occasion.

The fact of the matter is that no striker is judged on how many chances they can create or how many players they can dribble past. They’re judged on goals and as far as goals go they have not been flowing for either of the players. Combining their time on the pitch the strikers have played for 4,060 minutes scoring 13 goals. This translates to a goal every 312 minutes or a goal every 3.5 games. As a strike force or individually that will not strike fear into any opponents. A combined chance conversion of 7.8% is also very poor.

Our advice to Liverpool FC this January would be to go and buy another striker that can actually put the ball in the back of the net!

[cream]

We need another striker alongside Suarez and Carroll needs binning. We already know that.

[Lecter]

We need another striker alongside Suarez and Carroll needs binning. We already know that.

Did your source tell you that

[cream]

Did your source tell you that

No Lec, I watch the games, you should try it

[Lecter]

No Lec, I watch the games, you should try it

Yeah I mean I must take the season ticket I've had for 30 odd years out of the draw and get kneejerking alongwith you

[Alex]

I see this has turned into a season ticket measuring contest....