Carroll then vs Carroll now

EPL 2010/11 January: a newly promoted Newcastle are looking good in 9^th position with 30 points. Their form largely attributed to their lanky, local striker – Andy Carroll. The big man had 11 goals in 19 games for the Toons. That’s an impressive haul @ nearly a goal every 2^nd game. He was so impressive that he got a call up to the full National team at only 21 years of age & everybody was happy!

Such a young, raw talent!! The next Alan Shearer….England’s future saviour!!

January 31^st: 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 up until he was sold in January 2011. It’s compared with Carroll’s first 19 games for 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 & is performing well, and I’m sure he understands the Scouse accent even less.

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 were from central assistance (Joey Barton & Kevin Nolan) and not the wide areas. Of Carroll’s 11 goals at Newcastle, 8 of them came from an assist. Of those 8 assists, only 2 came from a wide cross and guess who those 2 crosses came from? The centre mid, Joey Barton. Carroll did also score directly from a corner with a Barton assist once again. In fact, 7 out of 8 of Carroll’s assists came from a central player. The only wide player to assist Carroll you ask? Jose Enrique.

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 were inside the box. When taking a look at Carroll’s position for each team, we can start to see why.

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 (2^nd 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.