EPL 2010/11
January: a newly promoted Newcastle
Such a young,
raw talent!! The next Alan Shearer….England’s future saviour!!
January 31st:
a whirlwind of confusion, money & insecurity comes to the boil, with 50
million here, some action over there, and the young Andy Carroll caught in the
middle of a 35 million pound reaction to the sale of Torres, which he never
really asked for…shame.
EPL 2011/12
January: fast forward a year and Carroll is now the laughing stock of the
footballing world. What happened in the space of a year? Is it the tactics
& surrounding players, or was 2010/11 just a once off? This article tries
help decide if the 35 million man can actually regain that form, or if he was
destined for humiliation. Is there a better way to build-up to Sunday’s match?
No. That was a rhetorical question.
These figures were taken
from Carroll’s first 19 appearances for Newcastle Liverpool from the same period
(Aug-Jan) in the 2011/12 season.
It’s obvious
he’s performances key to being a striker have dropped noticeably. But why? Can
he not understand the Scouse accent? Different climate? Well Jose Enrique made
the same switch from Newcastle
Many Liverpool fans have been claiming that a decent winger
would help Carroll score more goals. This confused me since most of Carroll’s
goals at Newcastle Newcastle
So obviously a
team with more centre mids than goals would be just right for Carroll, but no,
it’s not.
So the problem isn’t the accent, nor the weather, the
food is just as bad and it’s not that he’s requiring wingers to score…is this
merely an extended run of unlucky games, or is he a dud?
One odd stat was
slightly noticeable. Although he received nearly half as many passes at Liverpool , Carroll was caught offside more than double
the amount of times. Only 4 offsides compared to 10 at Liverpool .
That’s strange since 10 of Carroll’s 11 goals for Newcastle
Looking at
Carroll’s only EPL hattrick to date, notice how his & Barton’s areas of
play overlap. So much so, it’s hard to tell them apart:
Here are some
more screenshots of Carroll succeeding & scoring when deeper at Newcastle.
Notice how he almost always overlaps Barton/Nolan and hardly ever pushes
further than his wide players:
Here are screen
shots of the 2 Liverpool games Carroll scored in.
1. Carroll started in this game & had 3 shots, all on
target & wasn’t caught offside at all.
2. Carroll started behind
Suarez and took 7 shots (2nd most for the season). Carroll also received
his assist from outside the box, took the ball into the box & scored.
Screen shots of
Carroll’s bad games where people laughed at him afterwards. Boo hoo. Anyway,
he’s the furthest forward. A typical target man.
Here’s a screen shot of the
last game Liverpool won 3-0 against Everton. Carroll had 2 shots inside the box
& created 2 chances in this game, yet played as deep as Gerrard:
It’s true all
but 1 of Carroll’s goals across this period have been scored outside the box,
but it appears him arriving in the box is more successful than using him as a
target man. Sounds strange because of his height – its obvious he should be a
target man right? Maybe this is why he’s asked to play further forward than
Suarez. So far the games Carroll has played well in have seen him play behind
Suarez rather than in front.
Perhaps the key
to Carroll is not to pigeon-hole him into a cliché – tall striker must stand
far away and we’ll randomly drill balls to him then it’s inevitable he will score
– but to use him as a deeper forward who allows Suarez the freedom of the box
while encouraging the midfield to push up when attacking. Torres had the pace
to play off the last defender and it worked for Liverpool .
Suarez has the pace too. Carroll could be pivotal if used differently.
Of course he
could just be rubbish and in need of a haircut.
Thank you for your time.
