OPINION
If it wasn’t clear to West Ham United already that they need to dispose of striker Andy Carroll, it was made abundantly obvious by his performance against Bournemouth.
The former Liverpool man looked about as ponderous as it’s possible to look in his side’s 2-0 defeat to the Cherries, failing to get anything going and looking like a spare part for the entirety of his time on the pitch.
His greatest contribution was, unsurprisingly, a negative one. His miss just after half time was shocking in the extreme. There have been bad misses in the Premier League over the years, but this one was up there with any of them. It was a dreadful moment for the big man.
It was so bad that perennial nice guy Gary Lineker was forced to admit its woefulness. “Andy Carroll has just missed probably the sitter of the season,” he said on his personal Twitter account during the game.
You don’t want to pile in too heavily on a player after a howler like that, but it has to be said: West Ham need to sell Carroll as quickly as possible.
Lineker’s criticism hits the nail on the head with Carroll as it shows how he is now struggling to even finish the simplest of moves by scoring.
He contributes nothing to this modern Hammers team. Manuel Pellegrini is all about speed of thought and movement, neither of which the 30-year-old possesses.
Carroll is a sledgehammer at a time when West Ham need a rapier.
The Chilean is cultivating a more technical style of football at the London Stadium. He is looking for players like Felipe Anderson and Samir Nasri to use the ball well in possession and contribute moments of magic at the sharp end of the pitch.
Carroll just doesn’t have that in his locker, and he’s looking more and more obsolete by the week. It was clear against Bournemouth that he’s just not on the same wavelength as his team mates. He slows play down and makes West Ham predictable, that’s not what Pellegrini wants.
Lineker’s criticism has made clear what many Hammers fans have known for some time – Carroll isn’t good enough to be at the club anymore.
It may not have looked like it against Bournemouth but it’s a new dawn at the London Stadium. Carroll, unfortunately, is a dinosaur, and it’s time that West Ham made him extinct in East London.
