Jamie Carragher recently confirmed that Liverpool tried to sign Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez in 2010, and that the prolific goalscorer was the club's first choice ahead of Andy Carroll. Since the deal fell through, Gomez has scored 55 goals for Bayern, compared to Carroll's meagre return of 11 for the Reds. Despite these impressive club statistics, Anfield legend Mark Lawrenson is far from convinced of Gomez's talent.
In his column for The Mirror on Wednesday, Lawro singled out Gomez for individual criticism, and seemed to blame the striker for Germany's failure to reach the final of Euro 2012:
"If Mario Gomez doesn't score then he offers little else.
"His movement is poor, he doesn't do enough for the team and Germany will regret his inclusion in the starting line-up [for the Semi-final vs. Italy]".
Lawro is, of course, entitled to his opinion, but his view on Gomez seems unduly harsh:
* Gomez grabbed three goals and one assist during Euro 2012, making him joint top scorer with Golden Boot winner Fernando Torres.
* Without Gomez's goals, Germany would've drawn with Portugal and lost to the Netherlands, which would've meant elimination at the group stage. I think that qualifies as 'doing enough' for Germany.
* Gomez also offered one assist, which shows he does actually do more than just score goals. Additionally, he averages 5 assists per season for Bayern/Germany.
* Gomez also has 25 goals in 57 games for Germany overall, which is a pretty impressive strike rate.
Gomez hit 48 goals in total last season (including 7 for Germany), but domestically, he hit 29 goals more than Carroll. Just imagine how those extra goals could've transformed Liverpool's season.
Lawro was also unimpressed with Wayne Rooney, and here I agree with him 100%. He said:
"Rooney looked unfit. Pirlo was supposed to be too old, his knees have gone and was a reject. One was world class, the other was a massive disappointment".
Jaimie Kanwar
In his column for The Mirror on Wednesday, Lawro singled out Gomez for individual criticism, and seemed to blame the striker for Germany's failure to reach the final of Euro 2012:
"If Mario Gomez doesn't score then he offers little else.
"His movement is poor, he doesn't do enough for the team and Germany will regret his inclusion in the starting line-up [for the Semi-final vs. Italy]".
Lawro is, of course, entitled to his opinion, but his view on Gomez seems unduly harsh:
* Gomez grabbed three goals and one assist during Euro 2012, making him joint top scorer with Golden Boot winner Fernando Torres.
* Without Gomez's goals, Germany would've drawn with Portugal and lost to the Netherlands, which would've meant elimination at the group stage. I think that qualifies as 'doing enough' for Germany.
* Gomez also offered one assist, which shows he does actually do more than just score goals. Additionally, he averages 5 assists per season for Bayern/Germany.
* Gomez also has 25 goals in 57 games for Germany overall, which is a pretty impressive strike rate.
Gomez hit 48 goals in total last season (including 7 for Germany), but domestically, he hit 29 goals more than Carroll. Just imagine how those extra goals could've transformed Liverpool's season.
Lawro was also unimpressed with Wayne Rooney, and here I agree with him 100%. He said:
"Rooney looked unfit. Pirlo was supposed to be too old, his knees have gone and was a reject. One was world class, the other was a massive disappointment".
Jaimie Kanwar
but lawro says WITHOUT his goals hes useless, you cant then say its unfair and use the amount of goals he scored as backup for your argument. And im guessing you haven't seen his assist, as its basically the ball being kicked of his leg and then falling for podolski to smack in.
ReplyDeletewith all due respect, did you see Gomez's assist? A miss hit tap in from 6 yards lol having said that, i still think hes a top striker.
ReplyDeleteStill counts as an assist!
ReplyDeleteIt's a matter of causation; but for Gomez's touch, Podolski may not have got the ball, and may not have scored. Anyway, looks to me like Gomez very skilfully directed the ball into Podoloski's path ;-)
ReplyDeletehe tends to be anonymous for alot of games but he does score goals.
ReplyDeletehis stats for the first two games-he had the ball for 23 SECONDS and scored 3 goals.
as a striker you can't see fault with that.
carroll for me. tough as nails, young, time on his side, bags of potential for a big man. and english of course. carroll has always been a good player. i havent just seen match of the day all my life either !!!
ReplyDeleteJamie let me ask you a question, Have you ever watched Gomez live? I have, my mate works in Munich and gets tickets for Bayern games and I've been over to watch them, and for once I agree with Lawro. Sure Carroll has scored only a 5th of the goals but he hasn't been a regular and let's face it they have Robben, Ribary, Kroos and Muller which we most certainly don't. Carroll offers far more in workrate and hold up play, something youtube never shows, but as we all should know by now even poor players can be made look good by youtube, so given what we currently have I'll take big Andy.
ReplyDeleteHe is mostly a striker that relies on service. That is not necessarily a bad thing if the team can play successfully like that. If you can't give him service, he can be rather useless. He might not have overall movement in relation to the build up phase but in terms of getting on the end of the final pass, he certainly has the goalscoring movement. These days, you don't see many top teams who carry a striker in their first XI that is solely about goalscoring and goalscoring movement as they usually have someone who has more than such as their link up play. I got personally nothing against a striker who relies on service mostly, as long as the team can be successful with such a player in the side.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've seem Gomez play live for Germany several times. I've also see Carroll play live, and I would take Gomez over Carroll very day of the week. His movement, balance, finishing, game intelligence and ability to be in the right place at the right time (a skill in and of itself) are all superior to Carroll (IMO)
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, when it comes to strikers, I'm not interested in work rate; a striker's job is to score goals, and Gomez does that. Carroll does not. Workrate and hold up play doesn't win games; goals win games.
Gomez is fantastic at putting the ball into the net. How many goals did Gomez score compared to Liverpool last year? The guy is a box predator and with better service would have beaten Italy and given Spain a good game.
ReplyDeleteLawrenson also thought Spain were boring and Ger would beat Italy etc.... He is a poor expert and needs to stop making jokes of other people...pathetic
load ov sh1t we have andy carrol get behind the boys and stop chating sh1t
ReplyDeletebut gomez has kroos shwinstiger ribery robben and muller to cross for him in a much easier league
ReplyDeletecarrol has gerrard and suarez to an extent
Sorry Jamie I've been at 8 Bayern games, not watched on TV, in the past 2 seasons and in that time he's scored 7 goals. Sounds good right, but you have to remember the standard of defending in Germany isn't as high as the EPL, look at Mertesacker and he's one of their best! Secondly look at the supply line, for God's sake you have 2 of the best wingers in Europe and a choice of one of two of the best young attacking midfielders in Europe. It's all fine saying Gomez scores goals and Carroll doesn't but switch them and I guarantee Carroll will score goals with that supply line but would Gomez do it for us? I doubt it, you've slated Downing's lack of effectiveness, we hardly have a right winger, Bellamy prefers playing on the left or upfront and Gomez doesn't beat 3 players and smack it in, so where would he get his goals from? I'm sick of people slating our players when it's undeserved, Carroll has improved at Liverpool and God willing will continue to do so. I'll leave you with 2 clear examples of Carroll's effectiveness both coming from the Cup finals. Firstly in the League Cup final (don't deride it, it's a trophy) look who wasted energy by busting a gut to put pressure on Miller in the 90th minute when he looked odds on to score, effectively he got us into extra time and we all know how the game ended. Secondly look at the FA Cup final, with one up we constantly lost the ball but when Carroll came on his hold up play was outstanding; he scored one, well two but the officals denied us a goal. I watched a documentary about Shanks last night and at one point he talked about players not working hard and he'd jail them, strangely Mario Gomez came to mind straight away.
ReplyDeleteBe fair how many min KD give AC playing???
ReplyDeleteToo less playtime to judge good or bad
How many talent MG surrounded in bayern n germany???
with all superb star keep feeding MG any average fwd can be HUGE STAR
at euro how many chances does AC given by his teamate???
very less coz ashley n james not doing so well on crossing instead on feeding welbeck
That my Pov AC vs MG last season n euro...
i think AC had so much doubter bcoz he cant replicate torres n his price tag (well u had to blame DC n KD on tat)...let said if he a free transfer came in i believe lot of unnessasary comment from day 1 will reduced...
let judge AC this season under BR...if cant then really is AC prob under diff mgr cant lift him up...
joke: news said he stop drinking after came to LFC..i wonder tat d reason he been flop...or does Alcohol at newcastle really do remedy to him hahaha
'Carroll has improved at Liverpool' - Carroll hasn't improved at Liverpool, when compared to his very brief PL form at Newcastle. If anything, he has gone backwards most of his time at Liverpool, compared to what he showed at Newcastle. But he has improved from the crap form he showed for a while at Liverpool, I'll give you that.
ReplyDeleteCarroll's goalscoring movement is suspect to say the least. Lost count of the amount of times he didn't attack the six yard box last season. Carroll is a good receiver of long passes but good or mediocre, in terms of goalscoring movement Carroll has plenty of work to do. Yes, there are fleeting examples of movement in that regard but in terms of game in, game out, i.e., consistency of it, he has to improve big time.
Rubbish article. The fact you mention 5 assists a season as a highlight is very concerning, not to mention that his assist at euros was more of a rebound than anything. I think I won't bother reading these articles anymore. To amateur in standards
ReplyDeleteSorry original chan you are looking at goals scored not overall performance. Sure Carroll looked good at Newcastle because he was their main man, they played to his strengths, he's never had that at Liverpool. As for not attacking the 6 yard box how many decent crosses were put in last season? There are a couple of jokes about Downing, one being he did get an assist last season, he assisted Kenny getting the sack! Many see strikers as being there to score goals, and I get that but if we look at today's football more and more goals are scored by attacking midfielders, Stevie G, Lampard, even Messi and Ronaldo have the attributes of wide men. So the emphasis is more for the striker to be a hold up and link man, and in this light you can clearly see that Carroll has improved massively.
ReplyDeleteGomez is any day better than our Andy,besides he does what a stiker should do that is score goals, it's unfair to blame him for EURO defeat.
ReplyDeleteany striker that does not score goals is useless. its like having a defender that does not defend or a goalie with no fuckin arms
ReplyDeleteLike I've said before, Carroll didn't play for most of the season. There's nothing to compare. Anything for a dig at Carroll eh?
ReplyDeleteGomez has always been class, ball control, strategic assists, dribbling, six-yard box predator and is the guy who carried Bayern and Germany all along. Lawro is no football pundit at all, wonder why you seem to take him seriously. 'Spain is boring? Gomez is poor? Liverpool is doing well? Carroll is better than Gomez? OMG Lawro cannot even match the Manch Neville at all, he just does not have the facts, which are'
ReplyDelete1-Germany played so many attacking midfielders who were trying to impress and would not provide him with the service he needs.
2-Muller who played with him several times seemed not only grumpy but very selfish, but trying to score from impossible angles.
3-Italy have big defenders whose main concern was Gomez, and the Germans played into their hand, with Ozil being as selfish a ever.
Gomez is class, far beyong Carroll since he came to us, he is lazy, stubborn, complaining and even dives for nothing.
How many goals did MG score at the Euros, look at the changes that Low made against Italy, it all smacks of 'disrespect'.
ReplyDeleteGermany has 'never' beaten Italy in say last 5 meetings, Italy had a strong midfield with De Rossi, Pirlo and Montelivo running circles around the Germans, thus starving Gomez of the ball or service.
Mario gave them hell at the back adding more misery, would we now let Lawro tell us that Andy is better than Gomez because of a single goal! What a pundit, I would not use his opinion for an article JK, this chap is as blind as a bat.
Reminds me of why I dislike pundits as commentators: all they do is point out mistakes and complain about things. Why can't we just enjoy footballers for the good thing they do without having to tear apart their game and come up with something negative? Gomez is effective and pretty damn good at what he does.
ReplyDeleteMark Lawrenson was an average footballer & now even ordinary analyst. Gomez starts as the CF for one of the most successful National team & club team. Comparing him with Carroll is similar to comparing Lawrensen with Beckenbour in their playing time.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, including scoring goals, what actually Carroll offers? "
You are still in the snobbish mindset of "We are the best", which has led down a big cheer of achievement from the crowd, for Andy Murry to reach Wimbledon final, as first Brit in 75 years. What actually convinces you that the Bundesliga is "much easier" than the Premier League?
ReplyDeleteI put it other way, had Carroll been playing for Bayern, he wouldn't have sit on the bench for most of the season. Gomez was not tried only because of Carroll's passport & KD being a raciest. However, I don't think Mario would have come; LFC under KD was not a good place, unless your mother tongue is English. & players can understand that (ask Mirales, Acqua, Kyut, Maxi)
& he thought, sacking of KD was wrong, he was the man to take us to silverware (I do agree partially, Carling cup, the Championship are also trophies)
ReplyDeleteTo be surrounded by that many talents, yourself need to be among that similar bunch. Or do you think the Bayern bosses are dumber/bias than KD to play Gomez as center forward. Average British players started for LFC at the cost of Maxi, Kyut, Acqualini or Mireales, but I don't think Hetrzsfield, LVG or Hyenkes are that raciest.
ReplyDelete& please never ever name "el Nino" with Carroll in same article. A stallion is a stallion, even when injured & a donkey is a donkey.
Lawrenson, although incredibly annoying now, was far more than "average".
ReplyDeleteI think if we had to watch Gomez every week we would be tearing our hair out. At least Carroll attempts to get involved with the play and also helps out in defence. Gomez appears to just roam about hoping for someone to lay one on a plate for him.He should have put Bayern out of sight in the 1st half of the CL Final, and if he really was that important, then would Loew have dropped him?Carroll is just starting to learn his trade, and will improve next season.For a German, Gomez is a bit shit.
Dude, you are painfully right in this one. I totally agree with you.
ReplyDeleteactually i know liverpool is not the best and hast been the best for years the defenders in the top 6 in the premier league is better than than the defenders in the top 6 in the bundesliga thus making it harder to score and same in almost every other position
ReplyDeleteI have clearly looked at more than goals scored, as illustrated by my comment that he is a good receiver of long passes. Read properly.
ReplyDeleteIt takes minimum two to make a assist and a goal. Like I said, the service may have been mediocre but Carroll's movement inside the box was poor last season. It also takes a striker's movement to make a cross good. Yes, he has a duty to hold up play but he has a bigger duty to make goalscoring movement, which he was poor at most of the time last season. Considering all that and comparing his overall performance from his time at Newcastle to his time at Liverpool, he hasn't improved and certainly not shown anywhere near the big hype you and the media have given him. A few decent games at the end of the season, suddenly he is worth it, Pfft. Just an opinion, just like yours. Agree to disagree and I'll leave it there.
Did Andy Carroll run over your dog or something. You take every opportunity to slag him off. You basically said the same thing a couple of weeks ago. I'll give you one thing your consistent. Try giving the lad a break and support him.
ReplyDeletei compare wit last season n euro...where is raul or aqua??? do u know how to read??? n how often AC played along with kuyt??
ReplyDeletei did mention AC cant replicate what torres had done/achive that why AC had so much critic...
when i said they MG played surrounding with those talent feeding him all d way that is true....at LFC KD only focus on feeding LSrz...
i do see Carroll really shit on holding ball...but after he loss it least i see him chase back...well def at corner...
ReplyDeleteMG just wondering around wait for feeder...is hard to explain diff ppl had diff point of view... especially those ppl dun cheer for AC sure will find 101 reason he no good...
im not fans of AC either but as a LFC fans i believe we r reasonable to judge/compare our current squad what can their do to assist AC....n for those whom like MG so much i suggest throw ur LFC shirt n go cheer for Bayern instead...
wat a joke i cheering n singing ynwa with some idiot blindly criticize our team..
ynwa
haha after u mention i realize tat true some lads just wan blindly critics rather than fair haha good spot on thumb up
ReplyDeleteAt the moment there's no question that Gomez is better.
ReplyDeleteBut unlike you, Jaime, I actually think AC have got potential and that he will become better than Gomez in a couple of years time.
I'm inclined to agree with Lawro. Gomez was utterly useless against Chelsea and utterly useless against Italy. Clearly not a big game talent and very clumsy too. However, he is obviously in a totally different class to Andy Carroll.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how many LFC supporters there are who believe that by supporting useless players they are doing their club a favour. The exact reverse is true.
ReplyDeleteAn 'average' footballer. Don't talk utter nonsense. He was a brilliant player. Either you never saw him or you have no idea what a great footballer looks like. Probably both.
ReplyDeleteKD focused only to feed Suarez? Do you really a football fan mate, or bother to watch the game?
ReplyDeleteHe paid 2/3 times for garbage Downing, bought someone as ordinary as Adam to feed Carroll & now you are saying this...........
The fact that so many people chose carroline over Gomex shows how pathetically delusional and detached from reality fans are when it comes to their own players... carroline is barely epl worthy while Gomez is world class... absolutely amazing..
ReplyDeleteHow many downing asst n where is adam last season? Go search the stat how many passes suarez receive before you claim you are lfc fans and act like a football pro... Every week in week out just see your negetive really shame on you bare the word LFC
ReplyDeleteBut Carroll has the potential, and time, to get better. Gomez doesn't.
ReplyDeleteThere's lots of strikers I would have at LFC over Carroll, but Gomez is not one of them.
ReplyDeleteHe's lazy, wasteful and always seems to be on his heels.
You say world class. I still say, a bit shit.
He's Carsten Jancker with a hairdo.
At 26 turning 27, MG scored 181 top flight goals in 299 games for VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich in Bundesliga whereas AC, at 23, scored 25 top flight goals in 92 games for Newcastle and LFC. I completely cannot understand the logic of this comparison here, a striker with world class strike rate against an at best, mediocre EPL striker. Mr Lawrenson can say anything he pleases but it does not change this fact that LFC will not be able to get anyone of MG's caliber in the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteI've accepted the fact that if we are lucky, we will be able to get back 10 mil pounds for AC if we sell him now, 5 for his ability and 5 for his nationality, not a penny more. It's not the poor boy's fault, we cannot expect every striker that comes to LFC is capable of 20 goals a season. The only annoying thing is the stupendous idiocy of those people that identify him as good enough and paid over the universe for him.
Folks may say move on since those people are no longer in LFC but the impact is here to stay. Now, we barely have funds for new players, unable to attract big names while make do with those mediocre but hugely overpriced players and not forgetting the big broad wicked grins on the faces of those selling club owners whenever they hear LFC is interested in any of their players.
So you pay 35 million for the distant future? What a great idea. Of course, another great idea would be to pay 35 million for someone who can do the job NOW.
ReplyDeleteNot against Chelsea and Italy he wasn't!
ReplyDeleteGomez was given the hook at half-time against Italy, and against Chelsea had enough chances to put Bayern out of sight by half-time.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't pay £35M, no. But LFC did, he's still our player, and I don't see anything wrong with supporting the guy.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there's some blind faith involved, agreed.
Ideally, we would have bought a proven striker, but how many were available at that time? And whoever we went in for, the selling club knew we had a huge wad of cash burning a hole in Kenny's pocket, so would have fleeced us accordingly.
Many a player has been distinctly average during their first full season with a club, only to improve (Henry? Pires?....). I'd rather that than have someone who scores twice on their debut but ultimately fails (Diouf.... Clough....)
Carroll showed during the Euros that, if given some sort of service, he will put a few of them away.
I couldn't agree more. A striker is there to score goals. Maybe they should invent a special term for strikers who don't sore goals - like they invented 'holding midfield player' to describe midfielders who can't actually do anything. e.g. Lucas.
ReplyDeleteit's a tough cal, the age difference prevents a more direct comparison. Interesting though. Gomez looks brilliant but on occasions he looks like an old Carroll or worse (CL Final).
ReplyDeleteMaybe if you know the ball isn't going to be delivered in the box, you don't bother getting in the box any more?
ReplyDeleteFrom my seat in the Kemlyn, Enrique put in a few decent balls that he could attack, but Downing and Kuyt put hee-haw all season.
If you're hoping for a reaction with that comment, you will be sadly disappointed.
ReplyDeleteEvery successful team needs a 'water-carrier'.
Ah bless the ifs, buts, maybes, etc, eh ;)
ReplyDeleteGood old subjectivity
Every time a ball went into the box last season I watched Andy Carroll and Gary Linekers coaching series from "shoot" magazine came flooding back. "Always take a chance and attack space" were the words of Mr Lineker. I don't recall Carroll pealing off his an and attacking the near or far post, he spent most of last season marking the apposing center halves..... during our attacking play!! talk about making it easy.
ReplyDeleteOh My.
ReplyDeleteHow Patronising.
I was just saying maybe we could try playing to his strengths?
So knocking a young lad is constructive in your opinion. Firstly he is not useless as you say. Has he lived up to expectations - no. Is he a current England international - yes. Is he rated by several professionals in the game such as David Moyes - yes. So give the lad a chance, supporting him will help not hinder.
ReplyDeleteWasn't meant to be intentionally patronising, instead a light-hearted attempt at disagreeing with you without going into detail. But, alas, you did not it view it in such a way. Oh the horror.
ReplyDeletePretty slanderous, that, LFC_Fan.
ReplyDeleteThat is if you meant that Kenny is a RACIST.......
You went and did it again, didn't you?
ReplyDelete