After a strong willed performance against Liverpool that was not without its controversial moments, Andy Carroll’s name has been cropping up quite a bit in match reports – partially because he’s a hard worker who really makes a difference to the West Ham team, but also because our Andy Carroll’s got a bit of a reputation for being a bit brutish, and some meanies are suggesting that he’s only good in the air.
What, our Andy Carroll? Our very own Angel of the North? A brute? Never!
Well, perhaps it’s not so untrue— he’s certainly an aggressive player, and uses this to the best of his advantage to hold the ball up on the pitch. It would be tough to argue against the ‘brutish’ tag after his foul against Liverpool goal-keeper Simon Mignolet, which led to Guy Demel’s goal, but his surprisingly level-headed tweet afterwards provided perhaps the simplest and best summary of that game – “Sometimes the wrong decision goes for you or goes against you.” Do take note, Anthony Taylor.
Regarding the only being capable of heading the ball thing, there is of course some truth there too. Andy Carroll has scored two goals this season, both of which were headers, which means 100% of his goals this season were headers. So, there’s that. The man is lethal in the air, but I think it’s a mistake to write him off as a one-trick pony.
This is a player who is still getting back to his best, and right now he is drastically more comfortable using his head, but that’s not to say we’ve not seen flashes of brilliant shots from him—they’ve just not been goals, yet. But they will be.
Considering the above, I do think there’s truth to the reputation he carries around with him, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing to be an aggressive player with strength in the air. He pushes forward – occasionally he pushes literally but, work with me here, he is a tower of strength on the pitch. He’s a physical player, and thank goodness for that. With him we have a presence, and although there’s still work to be done with regards to his goal tally, we are a far better and tougher team with him out there.
Is Andy Carroll good with his head? Yes, clearly. Is he a brutish player? Yes, but it works for him and it works for us. He’s a big tough centre-forward who knows what to do with his head – and not only am I glad for that, I hope he’s got a chance this summer to bring those assets to an England team who could really use them.
Like Peter Crouch, Carroll has more in his locker than just heading the ball. Look at the way he prefers to chest it down on to the deck and play rather than just flick it on to no-one. Good control and hold up play and excellent on the defensive side at set plays. Big player for West Ham and I hope he has a good season end to cement a World Cup spot.
He doesn’t have to prove anything. Andy is class & that’s a fact, full stop. He has had a really rough spell with injuries, but we’ve all seen the pure class of his goals when he is back to fitness. I mean some of the goals he scored for us last season were world class. The goal he scored in our 1-0 win against Swansea last season. The cross came over & the ball was fully 10 ft in the air. Andy not only reached it, but rose, got over the ball & headed it DOWN into the bottom right hand corner of Swansea’s goal, giving the goalie absolutely no chance. Only a master goal scorer can score goals like that, as was the goal a master stroke on Monday last week v Sunderland. He was also marked almost out of sight on Sunday by Skrtell (don’t worry, Brendan made absolutely sure of that) & Co & yet still he put a blinder of a header onto the cross bar. He was also scoring lots of goals when he played alongside Suarez. No Andy has nothing to prove, at the highest level, he’s there, & Roy Hodgson would be a bloody idiot not to start him in every game in Brazil, & Hodgson knows that. It’s the media, as usual playing their bloody stupid little speculation games over world selections