Andy Carroll - Best Striker in the World

[Daniel 7]

"Come back to Liverpool and we will stick you on the bench. If our preferred way of playing isn't working in the odd game, we might stick you on and blame you for being **** if it doesn't work straight away. But you will not, repeat not be in our "Plan A". You are too **** to be my first choice. Remember - I sent you away on loan without even giving you a chance. So - how about it Andy?"

[Exiled_red]

To add, whether you agree or not, the idea of a Plan B has been ridiculed on Revista De La Liga by Graham Hunter and Guillem Balague when referenced to Barcelona. The idea is that there is a distinct pattern of play, and the plan is tweaked, never changed i.e. Mascherano makes longer passes from the back to the wider areas rather than Xavi/Iniesta making them.
The reason the team does not do well is because Plan A isn't functioning properly, so it needs to be made better.

Someone like Llorente would've been ideal, but it's not going to happen. What we needed yesterday was more penetration from the wider areas to stretch Reading. Coutinho did well on one side, but the other flank was non-existent until Downing came on.

Sell Carroll and invest in a quick player with good ball control and able to play a direct game.

I'm aware that Hunter and Balague have rubbished the idea of a plan B, but that doesn't mean that they are right. You could argue that the 'tweaks to the side' that Barcelona make are a plan B - if plan A was working it wouldn't need tweaking. They also make substitutions which change the make up of the side even if the whole pattern of play changes very little.

Barcelona have a very broad pattern of play that encompasses many different ideas, personally I think that our attacking ideas are much, much narrower, and we need to broaden our options, as at times we are very one dimensional, for example when we get the ball wide we very rarely put crosses into the box, we will play low balls into feet, or cut back to someone at the edge of the box, this makes us more predictable and easier for opposition teams to defend against. At the moment we don't have any other strikers to bring on, very few clubs have such a lack of options, and if you look at the range of strikers that the top clubs have they all have different strengths enabling them to try different things when games aren't going well.

In an ideal work all teams would try to play football and win games, rather than putting men behind the ball and playing for a 0-0. But we don't like in an ideal world otherwise the likes of Sam Allardyce wouldn't be Premiership managers. In the real work we need to have as diverse a range of options and style of play as possible, whether that is through having multiple plans or developing one all encompassing plan, to be honest I don't care. I like the football we have played at times this year but I think we need to accept that it isn't suited to all situations, I'm not proposing bringing back Andy Carroll to hoof long balls up at, I think that we could have used him as a sub to change things around a little, put crosses in from wide areas sometimes, it makes us more unpredictable in terms of what we are going to do with the ball, maybe he scores or maybe he distracts defenders enough to leave that extra half yard of space for someone else. (As I've said before I don't see Carroll as the long term solution I just think he offers an example of something different, that would allow us to mix it up which in my opinion is what we need. I don't think we should just have strikers who look to get in behind defences).

[Exiled_red]

"Come back to Liverpool and we will stick you on the bench. If our preferred way of playing isn't working in the odd game, we might stick you on and blame you for being **** if it doesn't work straight away. But you will not, repeat not be in our "Plan A". You are too **** to be my first choice. Remember - I sent you away on loan without even giving you a chance. So - how about it Andy?"

There is the very real question of what happens in the summer, I can't see there being many big money offers, the West Ham £17m thing isn't going to happen IMO, maybe Newcastle would take him back but how little would we be prepared to let him go for? If no-one meets that price (whatever the club sets it at) they only options are to either loan him out again or keep him here...

[Bender]

Andy Carroll is open to joining West Ham United permanently this summer, but admits his future remains uncertain.
The striker, bought by Liverpool for £35m, is on a season-long loan from the Reds but the Hammers can make the deal permanent for an undisclosed fee.

Asked if he would stay if West Ham put the right money on the table, Carroll said: "We will have to wait and see.

"It is obviously a great club and I do not see why not. We'll see what happens at the end of the season."

Carroll, who netted his sixth goal of the campaign on Saturday to earn West Ham a point at Southampton, added: "It has been great here and every minute has been fantastic.

"The lads have been great, the gaffer has been great and the fans are unbelievable."
Liverpool spent a club record to sign Carroll from Newcastle United in January 2011.
The 24-year-old failed to establish himself at Anfield and only made two appearances for Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers before joining the Hammers in August.

Carroll cancelled out Gaston Ramirez's opener on Saturday to leave Sam Allardyce's Hammers seven points clear of the relegation zone.

The striker said: "With my goal, I just had to hit the target. Obviously it got a little bit of a deflection and went in, which sometimes happens.
"I have had a few injuries over the years and I am just getting over them now so it is good to get on a run of games and goals.

"I had a few chances and I think we could have won the game in the end. We are disappointed not to but happy we got the point."
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers insists he is comfortable with the decision to loan Carroll out, despite Saturday's goalless draw with Reading.

"It's not at all unfortunate that Andy's scoring goals," he said.
"We're the fourth highest goal scorers in the league, so scoring hasn't been a problem for us.

"Andy's situation is really simple. He didn't want to stay and be on the bench. He wanted to play games."
BBC

[Charly]

Carroll is almost unplayable...

sounds about right

[Kenneth]

.

[Chazza]

Allardyce saying that FFP will mean that West Ham can't afford to sign Carroll in the summer.

[Alex]

I think thats rubbish personally. Because the extra TV money will mean that most Prem Clubs have a larger buffer there.

[Shaggy]

As if they didn't know that when they took him on loan.

As usual we've been taken for absolute mugs.

[Lee]

Hopefully that fat ******* is just trying to force our hands.

I'm certain that Carroll will end up at West Ham or Newcastle next season. However I doubt we'll get anything over £10m for him.

[Chazza]

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce has admitted that Andy Carroll's wages would be a stumbling block to the club's hopes of signing the striker from Liverpool.

Carroll, 24, has impressed during a loan spell at Upton Park this season, during which he has scored six goals in 20 appearances.

However, the Hammers hopes of making the deal permanent would be hampered by their inability to match the contract given to the England international when he joined Liverpool from Newcastle for £35m in January 2011.

And Allardyce revealed that the financial restrictions that are due to come into force next season in the Premier League, which would impose short-term limits on wage rises and force clubs to work towards breaking even, make a deal very difficult.

"The hardest thing is the overall package and making sure it is sustainable," said Allardyce.

"I point to financial restrictions being implemented next season that will blow the whole deal in one go.

"Someone will have a bigger budget than us probably but this is what is going to happen.

"In one fell swoop the financial restrictions mean we won't be able to sign Andy Carroll from Liverpool because it is too expensive, even if we wanted him, which we do."

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11685/8641575/Sam-Allardyce-says-West-Ham-can-t-afford-to-buy-Andy-Carroll

[Shaggy]

Fat *******.

[Assassin]

Chazza might be carrying an extra couple of kilos, but that is a bit harsh

[Shaggy]

[Chazza]