There's only one Andy Carroll, and he's ours... (Guest Post)

Guest writer Ryan McCarthy launches an impassioned defence of under-fire Liverpool striker Andy Carroll, charting his career from his start at Newcastle, through his loan period at Preston North End and then onto the heady heights of Anfield.

The day was almost over when the silver Mercedes pulled past the throng of fans paying homage at the entrance to Melwood, many of them long past bedtime on a January school night, transporting their newest hero, a purchase that had - even in the final hours of the final transfer day - caused surprise among the nation’s football journalists, Geordies and hardened Kopites.

The joy on Carroll’s face was only diluted by a hint of minor bemusement at the lightening speed of events developing around him. The message leaking from Andy Carroll’s mind and across his face was easy see: “Is this really all happening?”
Seven months later, and like the chariot transporting the Princess to the ball, that silver Mercedes has long gone and left Carroll to deal with the reality of wearing the number nine jersey for Liverpool.

The subsequent tone of the media coverage as Carroll has attempted to create his niche at Anfield has followed an all too familiar tone:

• “Andy Carroll still looking to let out his inner monster for Liverpool” (The Guardian)


• “Time for Carroll to start justifying Dalglish’s massive investment” (The Irish Times)


• “Finally fit and with the Liverpool team now set up for him, it’s time for Andy Carroll to deliver” (The Daily Mirror).

In recent times John Aldridge, Jose Enrique and Kenny Dalglish himself have felt the need to come out to defend Carroll, and even though he retains the support of the Kop, it will be easy to detect murmurings of doubt about Liverpool’s centre forward.

The intense giddiness of Carroll’s transfer day arrival, the simultaneous landing of Luis Suarez and the conclusion of the long goodbye to Fernando Torres left Liverpool fans dealing in the reality of the latest new dawn and wondering what exactly did we get when we got Andy Carroll?

Liverpool’s recruitment policy since the appointment of Damian Comolli seems to have focused on the Moneyball strategy of determining a player’s effectiveness by examining the player’s statistical value to the team. Essentially, was what made a player costly actually valuable and could some players’ worth be undervalued? Statistical analysis can only tell us so much about a player, but it can also give us framework for what to expect.

The early years

Carroll’s first three years in football as a teenage squad player at Newcastle and loanee to Preston North End simply give us the raw pickings detailing a boy on the verge of the action:

• 1,576 minutes played (equating to about 17.5 matches)
• 4 goals and 2 assists, (involvement in a goal or assist every 263 minutes)
• 56 fouls committed (30 against)
• 4 yellow cards and one red.

It was Newcastle’s relegation to the Championship that saw him gain more on field-service in 2009/2010, with:

• 2841 minutes of action
• 19 goals and 8 assists (a goal or assist every 105 minutes).
• Carroll committed 70 fouls and suffered 63 against
• 9 yellow cards awarded against him.

Newcastle’s promotion to the top flight and subsequent moonlight drive to Melwood saw a total of:

• 2176 playing minutes in 2010/11
• 13 goals and 3 assists (a goal or assist every 136 minutes)
• 58 fouls committed by Carroll and 42 against
• 6 yellow cards awarded against him.

So if Comolli’s Moneyball could talk, what would it tell us? In his two busiest seasons playing as centre forward Carroll has been involved in a goal or assist every 117 minutes. He is deemed to have fouled more than fouled against and will probably pick up in the region of seven yellow cards a season, even though any ill-discipline seems to have been rare and has only been ever punished by a red card on one occasion.

There is always the danger of the paralysis of analysis and it is easy to imagine Kenny Dalglish using statistics to illuminate rather than dominate his views of a player. Yes, off the pitch Carroll had been involved in enough instances to make prospective buyers wary, but if one could pick the code that locks the mind of Dalglish you could imagine our manager’s first view of a player would be ‘could he handle the pressure of playing for this club?”

Handling the pressure

Playing for Liverpool in recent times has been more than the pressure of playing for a successful club – its’ the pressure of carrying hope, expectation and the scrutiny that goes with the long term project of delivering long-lost success; It is the balance between shining a light on heroes of the past, whilst baring the comparison that brings.

Perhaps in this sense Carroll served a worthy audition when he laid claim to the No 9 at Newcastle. Success at Liverpool is still visible from the vault of the mind’s eye; the memory of success at Newcastle can only be felt from the passing of word from a generation to generation. Absence of success has only deepened the yearning and the pressure that comes with serving both tribes.

Yet this was a pressure Carroll met not only head on, but learned to carry on his back, stating it to be “an opportunity I relish and intend doing my utmost to do the shirt proud”. His manager of the time Chris Hughton, when asked if Carroll would be man enough for the wearing, gave his answer; “The type of character that Andy is tells me he wouldn’t shy away from it....He has got no fear and I think he would simply revel in the situation.....When you look at the greats who’ve worn it, it can be a burden for others, but I honestly don’t think it would be for Andy, he’s not that type of character”.

It was almost a throwaway line in Carroll’s first interview as a Liverpool player on Liverpoolfc.tv but when Carroll opined that “obviously No. 9 is a big number and it’s the number I wanted to play under”, you knew he meant it and that the marker has been put down. How often since Dalgish’s departure as Liverpool manager did Liverpool sign players who simply didn’t own much less have the moral collateral to rent the character it takes to play for Liverpool? Yes, £35m is a big outlay, but over a five year contract we have a young man who doesn’t shirk responsibility, he courts it. There is a new supply of Anfield Iron.

Vital to Liverpool

So what else would have attracted Kenny to Andy? It’s interesting to note that all of Kenny’s signings this summer have been an attempt to bring something different to the club. In Stewart Downing the pace and ability to run with the ball, take players on and get in deliveries from different areas; in Charlie Adam, a central midfield player who is comfortable dropping deep to take the ball from centre halves and dictating play with a range of passing; in Jordan Henderson, the athleticism of a player who can run beyond defences and stretch the game.

When Dalglish assessed Carroll it is likely he saw what he could bring to others as much as what he could do himself. Carroll occupies defenders; he provides a threat at the back post to which teams have to dedicate defensive resources; He is the target that wants to be hit. Quite simply, he is a nuisance.

Where the Torres/Gerard option depended at times on a high defensive line and balls in behind, now Liverpool, with a Carroll/Suarez combination can try to adapt their game to teams defending with a high line or dropping deep. Yes, Liverpool will have to work out an efficient way to utilise Carroll, through creativity and thought rather than desperation and reliance, but simply by having him, Liverpool have the potential for more variety to their play.

It could also be true, like the lesser lovely sister, that Carroll can also suffer from being judged by what he isn’t rather than what he is. Is he a natural athlete? No, it takes time and games for Carroll to gain full match fitness. Is he particularly pacy or adept at beating players? No, at times he can look lumbering in his movements and dribbling isn’t a strong point.

But what Carroll has is vital to Liverpool. With his physical strength, he will not suffer against physically imposing defenders in the way that Torres did. He is quite simply the best header of a ball in the English game, described by Kevin Keegan as “one of the top three” he has seen in the game. As we saw at St. James Park last year and closer up in his first goal for Liverpool, he has a powerful left footed shot. And like his partner Suarez, he possesses the correct amount of devil to make him unlikeable to play against.

Trouble? What trouble?

While much was made of the trouble that seemed to follow Carroll around Tyneside, he has been the model professional under Dalglish at Liverpool. In his first interview as a Liverpool player, Carroll also spoke of the friends and family he was leaving behind in Newcastle and the people he grew up with. Every fan can connect with him because he is a normal a 22 year old young man. So he enjoys a drink? It’s how much and where he chooses to socialise that I’m sure Kenny Dalglish has spoken to him about.

David Anderson in The Mirror might wonder aloud about “It’s strange how Andy Carroll seems to have been awarded hero status by some Kopites when he is not even a regular goalscorer for Liverpool”, but in an age where footballers are very much criticised for being out of touch, yet again it is a man employed to create the world of football with words that has failed to understand why it is Andy Carroll can mean so much to Liverpool fans already. We like him because he could be one of us, and we can relate to the big man trying to do a good job.

Comolli and Dalglish have seen enough - the statistical past that gives promise for the future; the character to stand up and take on the responsibility of performing as Liverpool’s No. 9; physical strength; a great header of the ball; a good left foot. Basically, a player who gives more tactical variety to Liverpool’s play.

Those from the outside will tell us enough of what they haven’t seen, but maybe it’s time we start to appreciate what we do have.

There’s only one Andy Carroll and he’s ours.

Ryan McCarthy