Andy Carroll - Best Striker in the World

[Rich]

If everyone chips in and the midfielders do too, then we'd be fine.

The point is, you're right that Suarez doesnt score enough, neither do the midfielders - yet Carroll is the one who gets criticised for it, not the others.

He's getting there - still needs confidence but let's hope tonight is the catalyst for better fortunes.

[Craig_H]

We need him to be prolific, no two ways about it. If he can't do it, then we need someone who can.

Why dont we need Suarez to be prolific then? Why just Carroll?

Why dont we need midfielders to score goals too? Why dont we need a midfielder or two to get close to 10 goals a season?

You basically just want to single out Carroll and have a pop at him. Bit pathetic really.

[yamiedo]

We need him to be prolific, no two ways about it. If he can't do it, then we need someone who can.

I agree that we need someone who can but it doesn't mean Andy Carroll can't play a part for us.

We could have Suarez, Carroll and another striker who is a prolific goalscorer. Then we have different options. Carroll is a good target man, Suarez drops deeper and to round that off we can have a more prolific, poacher type who plays off the last man.

I doubt if Andy will ever be anything other than a target man but its a different option like when we had Crouchie.

[yamiedo]

Adding on to my point about having different options, imagine an opponent facing us not knowing which set of strikers we were going to go with...could be a nightmare. A Cavani type player who is prolific and we are going in the right direction.

[Craig_H]

I agree that we need someone who can but it doesn't mean Andy Carroll can't play a part for us.

We could have Suarez, Carroll and another striker who is a prolific goalscorer. Then we have different options. Carroll is a good target man, Suarez drops deeper and to round that off we can have a more prolific, poacher type who plays off the last man.

I doubt if Andy will ever be anything other than a target man but its a different option like when we had Crouchie.

[-V-]

People wonder whether Torres and Crouch could have been made to work. The same thoughts are had about Suarez and Carroll even though they are all completely different players.

However my thoughts are completely different. I actually think Bellamy should be our main central striker and Carroll should be next to him as a target man. Bellamy has awesome pace and has shown he is a real menace when played centrally. Suarez is pivotal to this but he is best in a free role in a wide left sort of position.

...........Bellamy
................Carroll
Suarez................Downing
........Lucas....Gerrard

Obviously swap Lucas for whoever as he's injured and Maxi in for Downing at times but that should be our attack

[Craig_H]

People wonder whether Torres and Crouch could have been made to work. The same thoughts are had about Suarez and Carroll even though they are all completely different players.

However my thoughts are completely different. I actually think Bellamy should be our main central striker and Carroll should be next to him as a target man. Bellamy has awesome pace and has shown he is a real menace when played centrally. Suarez is pivotal to this but he is best in a free role in a wide left sort of position.

...........Bellamy
................Carroll
Suarez................Downing
........Lucas....Gerrard

Obviously swap Lucas for whoever as he's injured and Maxi in for Downing at times but that should be our attack

I've wondered about Bellamy because he can finish IMO, whereas Suarez and Carroll's finishing has been questionable at best. Not sure about Luis down the left flank though, not convinced he'd do much tracking back and i'd rather not put any real defensive responsibility on him, think it'd take away from his attacking threat.

[tbounce]

Fair play to Carroll tonight. I have been very critical of him but thought he played well tonight.

Agee that he needs games for confidence and I would play him on Saturday as I think his performance tonight merits it.

If you play well and are subsequently dropped regardless then there isn't a great deal of incentive to play well (other than personal pride obviously)

In a similar vein, I really hope Maxi starts on Saturday.

I must say though I do disagree with the notion that he doesn't need to be prolific. I agree Suarez and our midfield have badly let us down on the goal scoring front this season too, but at the end of the day, Carroll was bought to be the focal point of our attack.

Assuming Dalglish doesn't have some irrational hatred of him (which I'm sure he doesn't) there must be a reason he doesn't pick him week in week out. Maybe he doesn't do it in training. Obviously I've no idea. It is very strange though.

Would love Carroll to start and score on Saturday. Could really be the making of him for us a la Crouch v Wigan. Hope so anyway!

[Craig_H]

My point was, if Carroll and Suarez score 30 between them, Bellamy 10, Gerrard 10-15, the wingers 15-20 between them and then a Skrtel & Agger maybe 6 or 7 between them - then we're fine without anyone 'needing' to be prolific.

[destinydude]

My point was, if Carroll and Suarez score 30 between them, Bellamy 10, Gerrard 10-15, the wingers 15-20 between them and then a Skrtel & Agger maybe 6 or 7 between them - then we're fine without anyone 'needing' to be prolific.

If ifs and buts were cocks and nuts, I'd be getting gang banged right now.

[Frenchie]

If ifs and buts were cocks and nuts, I'd be getting gang banged right now.

thou doth protest too hard...

[Craig_H]

Yeah but why does the onus have to be on Carroll while the others dont score enough but this gets ignored? ****'s sake, some people's agendas are as subtle as a ****ing tornado.

[Fosterbloke]

I don't think we need anyone prolific, we just need to win matches.

I think Mista scored **** all when Valencia won the league with Rafa yet he was their top scorer.

[little dave hedgehog]

if it's a rafa team i'm guessing they won a lot of 1-0 games. we wouldn't necessarily need a prolific goalscorer, but we would need to concede a good deal less than a goal a game on average.

[Fosterbloke]

if it's a rafa team i'm guessing they won a lot of 1-0 games. we wouldn't necessarily need a prolific goalscorer, but we would need to concede a good deal less than a goal a game on average.

My point being that it's not about scoring lots of goals but just winning matches.

I don't care if Carroll scores once all season as long as he makes a consistent and meaningful contribution every time he plays.

Of course some people can't see past the goals scored column.