19 Jun 2012

Dalglish: 'Existing players' to blame for LFC star's 'problems' last season. Fair?

Since arriving at Anfield in a staggering 35m deal eighteen months ago, Andy Carroll has scored a paltry 11 goals in all competitions, managing only 6 league goals in one and a half seasons. Any way you slice it, Carroll has - so far - been an expensive failure at Liverpool, the question is, why has he consistently failed to perform? Everyone has their own view, but Kenny Dalglish believes that Carroll is not to blame for his underperformance.

In his column for The Mirror a few days ago, Dalglish insisted that Carroll's 'attitude and his determination when he played for me at Liverpool were there for everyone to see', and he seemed to absolve Carroll of responsibility for his underperformance by shifting the blame onto the club's 'existing' players. He said:

"If he [Carroll] had any problems, it was not really because he was struggling to settle in, it was because there were four or five new signings and the existing players were adapting to them".

Granted, existing players adapting to new players does take time, but I disagree that it is the sole - or even main - reason for Carroll's underwhelming performances. I would argue the following are more legitimate reasons for Carroll's struggles:

* Injured when he arrived
* Lacking in technical ability
* Unsuited to fast, free-flowing pass and move game
* Lack of effort/application
* Lack of fitness at times
* Poor finishing (lowest conversion rate in the squad)
* Poor passing accuracy (Lowest pass completion rate in the squad)

Dalglish concluded:

"The kind of performance he produced for England in Kiev proves that he is starting to get the benefits of the work he did at Newcastle and Liverpool".

Will Carroll be able to continue his improved form next season? Will he even be key figure in Brendan Rodgers' first team? I can't see Carroll coping with the 'Tiki-Taka' style of football Rodgers intends to implement, and to make that approach work, Liverpool surely need a different kind of striker.

You never know though; Carroll may surprise us all...

Jaimie Kanwar


64 comments:

  1. If he try hard enough he will become like Mario Gomez.

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  2. i agree with the injury when he arrived being a MASSIVE set back, resulting in lack of fitness and a catch 22 for not being given a good run of games (so not returning to fitness).

    i don't know how you can quantify his "technical ability" as being poor though ?, also he seemed one of the most passionate at times on the effort front.

    i don't know if the stats people, use "headed passes" to compile their data, because to me he seemed to lay the ball of well and ball retention always seemed greatly improved when he plays. If heading the ball on when thumped 50 yards is included in the data for passing accuracy, then that would explain it, if not then that is a bit surprising imho.

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  3. Barcelona had a big striker in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and he didn't perform too well in their tiki-taka style and was moved on after only one season. If he can't fit in such a system, what chances can Caroll?

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  4. if he stays fit throughout the euros and gets a good pre season under his belt then he will be absolute quality next season i believe (no "surprise" for me.)

    I only hope that rodgers will view him as an integral part of his first team without any bias, i definitely think he is good enough.

    down to andy pre-season i guess.

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  5. Jaimie, do you know if headers count toward his passing stats?

    If so, it seems understandable his rate would be a bit lower.

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  6. People who keep moaning about tika taka we cant do it, we can do it .... should we carry on playing the same way we have for the last 20 years? earning us nothing in the league!
    We have a massively capable squad and Carroll is OBVIOUSLY improving, last season he was upset because he wanted to stay at Newcastle but for 35million they would have even asked super hero Alan.S to move on for the club, in Carroll's eyes he was becoming the next Shearer, would have been a legend in Newcastle for the rest of his life.
    Give him time to get over that and we will have a monster of a player in our team!

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  7. Hey Vormhat - I've queried this with OPTA before, and their passing accuracy stats do not include headers.

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  8. Stop hating Carroll- he is young. Best years are ahead of him. Same as Henderson. He is going to be awesome. Henderson has ability too. Ok yeah the fees were sky high but they don't control that do they ...... That's lfc overpaying- again!!!! Vicious cycle

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  9. Nige I agree both are quality. They will progress next year along w gel w the others. Looking foward..jft96

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  10. Still too early to be judging Carroll, but if he stays at Liverpool I doubt he will be a regular starter under the new management. Sitting on the bench is no good for a player of Carroll's physique, he needs to be playing every week to maintain his confidence and fitness. So if he isn't to be a definite starter then he would be best moving on for the benefit of his own career, the only trouble is no one would bid more than 20 million for him. But he has age and physique on his side, he will be a star striker for the team that's prepared to build their team to his strengths.

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  11. Where Barca fall down is there lack of plan B, and power up front. Chelsea exposed this with 10 men.
    I feel Carroll can fit into this style of play and is showing great improvement as his fitness gets better. Carra recently gave his view and he's much better placed to comment than any of us.
    I just hope Jamie that you have the decency to back down and give the lad a break if his form continues to improve. Your negativity towards him seems too over the top.

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  12. I think he has struggled to adapt , and having to play 2nd fiddle to Suarez hasn't helped. Its no secret that he didn't want to leave the bar codes but it is noticeable how much better he's looked since the defeat to them. The booing by the Geordie fans seemed to make him more determined be a success and let them know what they've lost. I'm still not sure he'll be the main man, but he can be a very good, very expensive squad player!

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  13. Zlatan had 20 goals at Barcelona. Hardly a failure. I think his ego and his shaky relationship with Pep made them part ways

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  14. Jamie, are u a Manc?
    I know you will waffle on about freedom of speech and being entitled to having ur own opinions and people don't have to reag ur blog etc etc...
    But if u an LFC fan then why not be positive, spread a little optimism? You are just so negative and pessimistic- just SAD.

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  15. nothing wrong with his ability before he was injured when at newcastle.
    he is proving his critics wrong all the time.
    lets play him week in week out 4-4-2

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  16. If AC came to LFC for 10 mil pounds, nobody would have complained about his performance. Unfortunately, at 35 mil pounds, he is expected to be the star of the team, regardless of age, injury, attitude or anything else. The people responsible for signing him were solely to be blamed, definitely. How could anyone in his right frame of mind paid 35 mil pounds and created the 8th most expensive transfer in the history of football for a boy that scored only 11 top flight goals in his young career? He is definitely not the finished product that will push LFC to a top four position in EPL, at least after his performance and effort throughout the 11-12 season.

    Anyway, fans expectations are to be managed, see, many of us here asked for time to be given to AC for further development. But my question is how come we need to pay 35 mil pounds for a prospect player??? FSG must be banging their heads now as their huge investment in LFC has failed miserably till date. That is the heavy price FSG has to pay for appointing a man that has an outdated idea about English football and sanctioned the most ill-advised and undesirable deal in the history of it.

    It's like stocks and shares, as long we are still holding on to the player, whatever losses are paper loss. We shall see what magic can the new manager conjure up this season and turn the fortunes for LFC and players. I don't think we fans will see any exciting new names this season but that's all fine with me, as long there's no more all-time laughing stock signings from the jokers in the management of LFC and it's playing team.

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  17. He was a horrendous buy from the word go!!!
    Knee jerk reaction purchase without even analyzing what sort of system suits him best, One thing is for sure if we could recoup 50% of what we paid for him then we will surely let him go.
     Brendan Rodgers would probably not see him fitting into a more free flowing style of possession football that he has promised recently, so how does a big lump like Carroll fit into anything other than a 'Hoof and chase' team?
    We need a clinical finisher and thinker to compliment Suarez, traits that Carroll will never possess!!!!!

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  18. ''It's not his fault' - Dalglish blames players for LFC flop's 'problems'. Agree?'

    No I don't. I don't agree with a sensationalist headline like this in a context where Kenny obviously is trying to state that there were a lot of new players (that had to adapt) and 'the existing players were adapting to them'.
    I believe you are a better journalist than this Jaimie (I have read a lot of your articles, but never commented before), and whatever results Kenny brought, he does not deserve to be singled out as 'blaming players for LFC flop's 'problems' ' when he is clearly trying to say something else entirely. I hope you realise one day that a well supported, well written piece is the key to long term success in journalism. Not looking for quotes to take out of context and generate a totally new meaning to them in order to get more clicks, and then write your article around it.
    I am sad to say that your site will be on my block-list from now on so that I am no longer tempted to click sensationalist headlines like this, hoping to find something useful to read. Good luck to you in your future writing!

    /Disappointed reader 

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  19. Unless we get at least 20m for him he stays,interesting to see how BR
    uses him.

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  20. Simply put it, Carrol is just not the type of player Liverpool needs.  Why he can't adapt to the style of play instead like how other new players fit in fairly quickly i.e. Suarez, Bellamy and even Coates?.  To get the existing players to adapt to Carrol's style of play is just not the right way to go...Carrol has limited technical ability is the right reference to use plus he does not have pace to be precise.  LFC paid 35 mil for his height which supposedly where he can contribute with headers was just too costly...and how many goals had he scored with headers exactly?  

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  21. The reason why 36m was paid for Carrol is that Torres was sold for 50m just before the trade window closed. Carrol was bought because the Toon agreed to sell, there were few other options and the spare the 14m could go to other players. I addition AC was and is young and can improve. Anyway AC will be a great Liv player. Dont read too much into the Barca & Real style of play, yes they play the passing game well but it can become just as predictable and terrible as as the long hoof, mixing it up is what the way to go.

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  22. Carrol seems to be improving all the time from end of last season. He must learn to become the centre forward that everyone expects. He is certainly defenders' and goalkeepers' nightmare and must use his strengths to maximum capacity. With the new attacking approach Carrol need not be involved with the ticki- taka all the time, but must make all effort to reach the ball when the pass is made into the box. We all know that he has a hammer of a left foot. That will be handy when the ball is played on ground zero into the six-yard area. Then we can expect Liverpool to get a lot of corners due to the new attacking play. This is where Carroll will become a beast that he is. On the air there simply isn't anyone who can stop him. Lets see how Brandon will use this half man half beast next season.

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  23. daglish is just saying the players weren't able to gel, he's not "blaming the existing players" 

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  24. I will say that at various points during the season I saw Carroll working very hard and doing great things to earn and keep possession in the attacking third but the way Liverpool were playing just didn't seem to work towards utilising that. He needs someone close to him to pick up the glanced headers and knock-downs and it happened too rarely. However rather than blame the existing players I found myself wondering exactly what Kenny was thinking. This was his system, his tactics, and nothing that Liverpool did seemed aimed towards actually using Carroll effectively. Kenny no doubt had a primary say in getting Andy into a Liverpool shirt so what precisely did he think he was getting and why didn't he use the big man most effectively? In all of these comments, where is Kenny saying that perhaps some of his own work was partly to blame? Either he bought the wrong player knowing that his system wouldn't be perfectly suited or he failed to adjust his system and existing players to play in the most effective way. It just seems a lot more like something that he was primarily responsible for rather than the players themselves. 

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  25. Sorry my friend Hendo is anything but quality stop kidding yourself wake up and smell the coffee, he has to be the most clueless footballer i have seen in a long time, as for Carroll well lets just say that i actually don't mind him because he has the hunger to prove himself.

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  26. Oh Kenny !!! Stop it already. Please just stay a legend and no more. Please ...... enough !!!

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  27. What are you doing Jaimie K? You're putting words into Kenny's mouth. He said that the new players didn't gel quickly enough NOT that they are to blame. KD wasn't ruthless enough and took his time but he didn't blame anyone. Red Top journalism!

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  28. ..... And I wished you'd taken Henderson(passenger) with you. As pathetic your total signings were, you didn't even manage them well but they will be used better I'm sure. Hopefuly those benched after having a game before will not be demoralised the way you deprived them their playing time that should mostly be based on merit. Now, stop trying to justify anything. If there's good you could do for the club, try and get a buyer for Henderson even for a third of the money you paid fo him ; no a quarter would be fine. Pleeeeeeease !!!

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  29. jaimie won't let the facts get in the way of his agenda

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  30. Mr. Point Of View9:19 am, June 20, 2012

    MY POV :

    Mr. KD is just u dunno how to use AC...end of it....

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  31. I don't think Chelsea did anything special with Barca, they embarrassed us as a country in my opinion, they only did what what we see in the EPL every weekend stick everyone in front of the goal and cross your fingers someones standing in front of the goal when they take a shot, that happened endlessly last year to Liverpool teams parking the bus and hitting us on the break, do they say OH AMAZING WEST BROM just totally exposed LFC that was the best match I've ever seen. 
    Chelsea didn't expose anything you'll find they just kind of got lucky. Now a performance like Liverpool's 2-1 victory over Barca ... at their home ground, that was what I'd call exposing them we "played" them and won not let them have 80% of the possession and hope they can stand in the way. oh and before we harp on about it wasn't the same team this was a pretty good team.
    Valdes, Belletti, Marquez, Puyol, Zambrotta, Xavi (Giuly 65), Motta (Iniesta 54), Deco, Messi, Saviola (Gudjohnsen 82), Ronaldinho. 

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  32. Sorry mate! Carroll lacks technical ability to become Alan Shearer. You can never imagine a free flowing football or quick counter attack while Carroll is upfront. It takes him all times this world to move and change direction while running. Unfortunately, Carroll does not have the guile or agility to become Shearer. He can be more useful to Stoke or Newcastle than Liverpool.

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  33. But FSG didn't PAY 35million, the deal was simple we want 15million for Torres plus a striker of our choice, 
    Castle say well if the cheque books blank give them a stupid figure oil man will pay, I honestly thing castle could have said 45mil and we would have simply told Chelsea Torres was 60million. That simple, literally pass the bill on to Mr Abramovich.

    If we wanted someone for 15million Torres would have gone for 15million are we following the math here? 20million player ... Torres goes for 35million.
    Yaaay next children i'll go over your 6 times tables

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  34. Totally agree I just hope Refs start giving us a break with the amount of times he is pulled to the ground.
    Last season alone the dirty play aimed at him could have won us 15 peno's

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  35. you hated Lucas too, i can tell. Hendo will make it at LFC because he has what it takes, none as blind as those that won't see!

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  36. I think if you slice his LFC career up, then the last couple of months are what we signed him for. Yes the price was inflated, yes we didn't have to bow to Newcastle's demands and we could have pocketed the ridiculous extra money that we got for Torres, but that isn't his fault, so don't beat him with it.

    We should have let Carroll be nursed back to health by Newcastle and gone back in for him in the Summer for a less ridiculous price after he got back to fitness. That thigh tendon injury set him back for a long time and ruined his mobility far longer than anyone had foreseen, although I'm not sure why as anyone slightly medically inclined at the respective clubs should know that tendons take longer to heal.

    It was plain to see that his fitness was terrible compared to the striker that was terrorizing defences all over the Premier League up until his injury. You don't lose that ability overnight, unless you get injured that is.

    Make no mistake, for a "target man" he is good on the deck and relatively pacey. His technical ability is better than you think. He has a unique skill set in this respect. Doesn't anyone remember his England debut against France? Even Rio at the time complemented his touch on the ground as well as his aerial prowess. We used to still lump it up to Crouch when he was better with his feet, and that was after he had been with us for a year!

    We have short memories, but potential and ability don't just fade away. Andy's problem was fitness and mobility not allowing him to do what he does best and now he is no longer static he is getting back to what he can do.

    He has a great future ahead of him and I'm glad he's at our club. He'll fit it in to the team's style just fine because of his unique abilities. Danny Graham was a target man at Watford before playing upfront for Swansea, so not sure how everyone assumes that Carroll won't fit in to Rodger's plans.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/8138737/England-v-France-Andy-Carroll-is-different-and-deserves-his-starting-place.html

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  37. So he has what it takes hey, mate he is a pussy when it comes to tackling he can not see ahead of him when going forward, he has f$%k all on Shelvy but i'll give you, this his stats for passing are fantastic because he is great at passing sideways and backwards. Your probably one of those fools who say he is the next Gerrard, what a joke, wake up, we have better kids in the reserves who have more balls and passion.

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  38. Oh sorry i forgot, Lucas is a good footballer but a Xavi Alonso he will never be, for the record i actually didn't mind lucas because it is a lot harder when you play football in a foreign country and even then he was nowhere near as bad as Hendo.

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  39. Ibra is on a completely different level to Carroll in terms of technique. Carroll has an awful touch and no pace.  Lorenthe who like Ibra has the proverbial "great feet for a big man" and for a striker of similar stature is miles ahead in every aspect to Carroll. £35m for Carroll is the worst transfer in British football history (before people say Torres he was a 25+ goal a season striker and European cup winner and £50m was just for "potential")

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  40. *was not just for potential i meant to say

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  41. "This is where Barca fall down"...love the sensationalist sound bites! If (and i know ifs dont win football matches), Messi's penalty had been 3" lower you wouldnt be writing this.  Barca have won 14 trophies in the past 3 years and using the Barca template Spain are world and European champions so calling for a lack of a plan B as their downfall is slightly over the top.

    Chelsea got a season's luck in 180 minutes but Barca are still the best team in the world by miles. People said the same thing in 2010 when Inter knocked them out but came back the next season and cleaned up. They'll add to their squad depth and will wipe the floor with the competition again next season.

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  42. Mr. Point Of View11:50 am, June 20, 2012

    agree with u....all d matter is HOW MANAGER UTILIZE his player...i meant tactical.....

    im not fans of carroll but be fair to him...he felt into wrong man hand....hope Rodger will had a good tactical suit his play...

    from LFC.tv till this web...majority fans blame him on this blame him on that...BUT doesnt any fans twice KD tactical not suits his play???

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  43. Such warped logic my good sir as you clearly do not understand accounting (i dont mean any disrespect by saying that). If i told you i sold a Ferrari for £100k and then bought a Fiesta for £85k (just because i could) wouldn't you say i was completely mad? This is what we did with Torres/Carroll. And we DID pay £35m no matter how you try and spin it to make yourself feel better about it. The accounts would say we did as (to keep it simple) would go down as a current liability. I have never understood the "gross"/"net" arguement as businesses arent run in this way (read up on double entry accounting and it'll all become clear) 

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  44. name one, you sound like you watch them a lot, i will probably recognise your face then!
     He won't be the next Gerrard, he will be a very good player though. Shelvey ia a championship player ATM but also will be very good.Like i said none as blind etc......

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  45. Also 10 years older!!!

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  46. So i have to be there live to know whether a player has talent or not, no i have not watched them from the stands unlike you, thats the problem people like you think because you live in Liverpool and your a season ticket holder that you know more about who has talent and who doesn't, in your opinion Hendo will be good for LFC and thats fine but you are talking about the LFC from last season and now, well i am not and imo Hendo wouldn't even make the bench in the LFC that we should be because if thats the talent your happy with then i must be supporting the wrong LFC.
    By the way do i really need to be there to watch the reserves play? i am not as lucky as you i live in Australia but i have seen most of our reserves play at some point, i am not going to name them because that will prove shit, in case you don't know you can find them anywhere on the net, it's the 21st century mate

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  47. Rodgers is NOT going to implement the Tiki-Taka style of play you say that Caroll can't adapt to.

    But more of a Liverpool simpler pass and move ethic !!!

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  48. if you think Coady, Ngoo,Sama and Morgan will make you are very mistaken. Suso Sterling Mclaughlin and Wisdom will make a very good career in football BUT not necessarily with us, Henderson and Carroll are light years ahead of them players.

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  49. And i don't think i am any better a LFC fan than you!

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  50. Think you should watch a bit more of him. His touch is quite  good and would be low on the order of where he needs to improve. Kuyt had a shocking touch and hence why he has been moved on.

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  51.  Hendo, will feature a lot in the new plans as he is comfortable on the ball and can actually make a pass. Technically he is light years ahead of Shelvey at this stage. Have you ever seen him give the ball away even with 3 or 4 guys on him. You stated he is a clueless footballer? thats just an odd comment and would love to have some reasons why. You seem to base him being a bad player cause he isnt kicking the shyte out of the opposition. I am guessing you probably love Jay sperring. 

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  52. What does age have to do with technical ability? You can teach tactics and positional awareness but can you teach a 23yr old how to run faster or how to control a ball? Technique/touch is natural ability honed as youngster and can't be "taught". Think why English players are SO technically inferior to most other nation's players?
    Visit La Masia and then visit any other EPL youth training academy and that'll answer the question for you??

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  53. Danny Graham played for Brendan Rodgers and scored 12 goals for swansea last term. Now, which type of player Danny Graham is? Is not he big and slow player like Andy Carroll? If Danny Graham could be part of tiki-taka then how on earth Andy Carroll can't be? Any answer for this, Jaimie?

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  54. Hey grug it's very hard to give the ball away when your passing it 10 yards sideways and backwards, he has never had 3-4 guys on him stop kidding yourself he is not that highly thought off, as for his skills you and the rest speak off, he plays in the midfield and yet if you really watch carefully you will see him track back and do nothing when he gets there.
    He also loves to just sit in front of the man with the ball and jockey him, he applies no real pressure, you say he is comfortable on the ball, what a joke he the most uncomfortable player with the ball, is not sure about anything, hence why he never holds the ball for long, don't mistaken confidence for lack of talent, too many times people say he needs more time, well you work out how much time he has had in the EPL, should we have not already seen more than what we have? F#$k even Andy started to come good near the end and he has a more difficult job.
    Anyway you have your opinion thats mine, nice talking i will move on now.

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  55. You never know; you may surprise us all by one day writing something other than complete bollocks.

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  56. ROFLMAO 

    lolz

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  57. Lol so carroll is the finished article and we bought him because there is no need to improve him! Glad you are not lfc head scout

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  58. the price should not be a relevant factor in judging Carroll as it was directly related to the sale price of Torres. Carroll is young, strong, brave, and will be a great Liverpool player in the future, if he doesn't get driven away by all this negative 'excuse for journalism'

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  59. idiotic ignorant comment from someone who clearly understands nothing of football. Henderson will be a great lfc player in the future. we heard the same nonsense with lucas. now henderson and carroll. go and player on your computer game

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  60. I didn't necessarily mean like Alan shearer as in play like him i meant as in Newcastle legend status 

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  61. Simple as, we needed a player asap on deadline day, I understand accounting fine, I also get that the club had the money credited then debited from their accounts to level up the books ( so effectively we spent it yes i get that) but what I'm saying is
    we sold our Ferrari but weren't sure how much to sell it for, so told the guy buying it we needed £15k to put a deposit on a mortgage then saw a lovely fiesta for £35k yes it is pure madness I'm not stupid but we could have picked any car we wanted (The price is irrelevant it wasn't an issue the club did exactly what they had to do, the player we brought was and the guy with more money than sense would have given us our £15k regardless.
    The owners were put on the spot by Torres and to keep us happy had to spend it just as fast as they got it, imagine the outrage if they had said lets save it and get someone in January we would have had yellow and green scarves EVERYWHERE!!! Papers would be endlessly pumping out "THE YANKS ARE DESTROYING LIVERPOOL" headlines

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  62. It had to be Knee jerk, Torres didn't exactly leave us with much time to extend the knee slowly did he

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  63. Never has Brendan Rodgers EVER said that we will adopt the 'Tiki-Taka' style of play at Liverpool. 

    Infact he is quoted as saying that "LFC are too big a club to copy another sides style of play" (I'm paraphrasing). And with the sheer investment, and supposed inability to recoup any losses in the transfer market, it looks like Carroll will be staying, and will be invovled in the first-team, for the short-term atleast.

    Anywho, anyone doubting Rodgers ability to get the best out of Andy, are probably the same people who thought Danny Graham wouldn't get 12 goals in his debut, top-flight season. (one app with Middlesbrough in 2006 doesn't really count).

    So, instead of thinking we're all experts, let's just sit back, enjoy 2012-13, and support. 

    That is our brief, you know?

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