30 Mar 2012

LFC legend blasts: Goal-shy Anfield flop is 'no use' to Liverpool. Harsh?

Andy Carroll continues to be a hot topic of debate for Liverpool fans and ex-players alike, and although his form has improved a little over the last couple of months, a brutal, inescapable reality remains: Carroll has scored just two goals in the last 23 league games, and Anfield legend Ian St. John is on the verge of losing his patience with the 35m striker.

Speaking to LFC TV recently, St. John - who scored 118 goals for Liverpool during the Bill Shankly era - criticised Carroll's paucity in front of goal:

"We're all waiting for Andy Carroll to start scoring goals, but to tell you the truth, if he doesn't, then I don't see him having a future at Liverpool.

"Centre forward is about scoring goals, but if you're not doing that, you're no use to the team, you're no use to anybody"


No matter how you look at it, St. John is right: Carroll's job is to score goals, and he just hasn't done that. I accept that it's not entirely his fault though:

* Despite improved form recently, Dalglish has not played Carroll consistently, and over the last few weeks, he's been warming the bench.

* Many times throughout the season, Liverpool have not been set-up to get the best out of Carroll, i.e. not playing Downing with him more often.

* Liverpool's atrocious crossing accuracy of 20% means that service to Carroll has been poor most of the time.

These are valid reasons but, ultimately, Carroll is just not good enough for Liverpool, and his form this season has proved that.

Mark Lawrenson recently suggested that Liverpool should do a swap deal with Newcastle, which would see Carroll go back to his hometown club, and Demba Ba come to Anfield. I would take that deal in a heartbeat.

Jaimie Kanwar


29 comments:

  1. He is a Flop!!!!

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  2. st john-the only man on lfc tv who doesn't sound like he is reading from a script and has no allegiance to kenny.
    he's been critical of lfc all season and rightly so.carroll is going to go down as the biggest flop in lfc history,a very poor player,no technical side to his game.he should look at videos of crouch and heskey and see how a 'big man' should hold the ball up and bring others into play.
    anyone who is clinging to the fact that he is going to come good is deluded.he was bought for five years says kenny-well,the first year and a half has been absolute bollox.

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  3. Carroll can't score if no one is passing to him, Downing was bought to supply crossed to Carroll and he has completely failed to do so. He ALWAYS cuts inside and NEVER goes out wide and cross the ball at pace, at height, into the box. You simply can't blame Carroll.

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  4. how many times has carroll missed headers that he should be putting away? can't just blame lack of service either.

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  5. he hasn't had that many opportunities to head the ball at all, something like one a game and you can't expect him to put them all away. When one does come in at the rigth pace and height, he is probably so shocked that a decent ball has arrived that he can't believe it and over eggs it.

    I feel sorry for Carrroll - he has improved his game in the last couple of months but is not getting the service required. He does hold the ball up well and his flick on s are starting to find people, and he works hard. He is a squad player and needs to massively improve but I don't blame him fo rhis form at all. Downing, Henderson and Adam are a different stroy though - utter average players

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  6. I've watched carroll a lot - he's really static in the box, hardly ever anticipates where the ball is going when crosses come over, so unless the ball is played inch perfect to his head it's a waste of a cross.

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  7. Carroll needs games and should be starting with Suarez, he isn't scoring but is having an effect on games. Playing 3 games then being dropped and now only starting once in 6 games in the league is no good for any player especially a striker.
    Why was he dropped after the Stoke and Everton games?.

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  8. Absolutely right !' Static' sums him up in a word. He really should watch some videos of Peter Crouch who was constantly on the move and who, for such a tall gangly player, was brilliant with his head and feet ! Must admit I like Jaimie's idea of a swop for Demba Ba. he is a player who is always on the move and quick with it. 

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  9. Would that be the Heskey who kept the goal scoring Fowler out of the team? 
    Crouch was good but is under valued at all the 9 clubs he has been at and has been moved on.
     Is it Carroll's fault? Or have we taken one of England's brightest prospects and made him ordinary? Poor training programs which he wasn't used, to to much gym work which seem to weaken him more then strengthen him, all can effect a player on pitch performances half the player Newcastle had.

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  10. I think Carroll has improved as a player, actually. And, of the recent signings, him, Bellamy, Suarez and Enrique can all go on to do something in future. It's Downing, Henderson and Adam where the club wasted 45 million and made sure we had no creativity in the team. Those three have been the main problem. If Carroll plays for Arsenal, he definitely scores a goal like the Van Persie equaliser against us, from the cross from Sagna. We just are not creating chances for him and, just as he has to understand our play, our players need to look for his head a bit better.

    Besides, even if he is just a squad player now, the loss that we will take on him probably ensures that we can't get anyone that much better in any case. Best to keep working with him and try to up his performance as much as we can in the next couple of years. At least till he is worth a bit more. Henderson, however, should be sold, in my opinion, don't see any time in future where he will kill our team with his ability. And the need to find someone to do the job that he was bought for is much greater. Use his wages and some of his transfer fee to try to tempt Hoillet to Anfield. Move Adam on and look for someone younger and faster, who can tackle. We'll take a hit on Downing as well, earmark Sterling for his place and if Wigan go down, try to take McCarthy and Moses off them for the Downing fee. Pace and youth is what is needed.

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  11. Crosses or no crosses he ain't good enough. PERIOD. We need a better striker and that's it.

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  12. Well, for 35mil he should not be warming the bench.....that much is for fcuking sure.

    Either play him or sell him, simple as.

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  13. Andy should be off loaded even at a crippling financial hit. You can't play him in to form. He is simply not a Liverpool player.I can't think of another type of player akin to Carroll who was a success at Anfield 

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  14. A simple question may sum it up. How long it takes for Carroll to change the direction of running while he is running at full speed ? The guy falls over like a year old baby.

    Another most important things as a striker, How many different types of shots have you seen Carroll playing? I have just seen a standard hammering along the ground. Look at other strikers. They play flick shot, curling shot, toe shot, inside/outside shot, chip shot. Variety in skills/shots can help in getting pass keeper which Carroll does not have. 

    I think Carragher has more skills and shot in him than Carroll. 

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  15. we need some muscle up front when we mix the play up. kk has to play him to get his confidence back, or sell him. feel a bit sorry for hiim really, the price wasn't his fault, no more than any of the others. charlie adam is likely to be out for a while now, which means we won't get to see the fruits of his 'magical left foot'. saying that, i have not seen it since he joined!! 'magical' should be 'mythical'.

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  16. downing has not played like a winger. he NEVER takes defenders on and his service has been predominately crap. he's dribbling with only one foot for christ's sake!

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  17. junior hoilet has shown great form at blackburn and he is out of contract in the summer, he would stay out wide and be a great addition.

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  18. Arsenal are sniffing about, as are Tottenham. Unless he specifically wants to move to London, the main problem is they will both probably be playing Champions League. But we pay higher wages than those two sides and should be prepared to outbid those clubs to get him. Apparently, Bayern Munich are interested, but they have a lot of wide men and I reckon he might well decide that he is better off in England. We should throw the kitchen sink at getting that guy.

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  19. agreed, mythically bad at the moment.

    I think we should play him and i think Carroll has not been anywhere near one of our worst players, so not sure why everyone gets after him so much. He needs a run of games and he needs proper chances to be created for him. It makes no sense to sell him on for a price that will only get a squad player. He might as well be our squad player.

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  20. agreed, he may not have been worth 35 million pounds but he was twice the player until we got our hands on him. And i am still not going to say that anyone is not good enough when we don't create enough good chances. How many more goals does Suarez have in any case?

    The mistake that we made last summer was Downing, Adam, Henderson. If they had become the creative force the manager was expecting, and for 45 million they should have, then I don't think anyone is worrying about how many goals Carroll has scored this season.

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  21. Totally agree, it was our expensive uncreative creative midfielders who have blown our season. 45 million pounds? If those three had been Ashley Young, Juan Mata and Scott Parker, for the same price, we'd be in the top 4, no doubt about it and Carroll would probably be in double figures, at least.

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  22. what it boils down to is that we were stupid to part with 35million for a 'prospect' when we needed a proven player.carroll hadn't even a full top flight season under his belt.

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  23. well said,the cup final proved that when he stood outside the box watching suarez.if he'd made a run in as a striker should he'd have had an easy tap in.

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  24. people saying carroll has improved recently?
    well if his performances in the last few weeks are an improvement we really have signed a bag of shite.
    mike ashley must be having some laugh at our expense.

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  25. Liverpool must learn to buy players with excellent technique and skills, first and foremost.All of the Liverpool's signings clearly lack that except Suarez.You cannot expect Carrol to be like Cavani or Falcao coz he simply doesn't have the technique and skills to do it.We haven't talked about pace and game intelligence yet.That's why Carrol,Henderson,Adam,Spearing,Carragher,Downing are only on par with the players from mid and bottom clubs and we only have Gerrard and Suarez as game changers.

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  26. who's playing better than him in our team at the moment? So why is he not getting any games? Why does he look worse than he did for Newcastle last year?

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  27. Think you are right. But our coaches should be able to teach Henderson and Carroll that. Maybe not Downing and Adam. Carroll, at his age, should have decent potential as we know he has power and some strength. Somehow, he looks less of a player than he did last year for Newcastle, that is where our coaches have failed. He wasn't a 35 million player then, maybe 15 million maximum, but how have our coaches taken a year to turn him into a 10 million pound, max, player?

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  28. At the end of the day, he was and is always going to find it tough to win people round, the moment everyone heard how much he was going to cost and that is the club's fault for splashing out so much on Carroll

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  29. J Wholesalesupply11:35 pm, April 02, 2012

    Agreed, the club only have themselves to blame for Carroll's issues. As we saw last year, we didn't need to sign him on such a spur of the moment knee jerk reaction. That cost everyone involved a lot. 

    Should be a huge lesson in the future. Just hope it doesn't stop the team going for big players with some chunks of money. 

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