Summer 2011

[WaltonRed]

Some people have written off Carroll already and its quite frankly sickening.

[Carra_is_legend]

Some people have written off Carroll already and its quite frankly sickening.

 

Aye. I think that has got to do with the massive price tag of £35m.

 

Personally I think it can go either way. He could turn out to be a Heskey or the new Shearer. Either way, the time to judge him is not now. He needs at least 1 full season to show what he can or can't do.

[lifetime fan]

Some people have written off Carroll already and its quite frankly sickening.

 

Who has written him off?

 

Plenty have said they don't see him as being worth the money we paid and doubt he'll be as great as some are making out.

[Trumo]

Just had a glance at that football rumours site, and found the usual garbage posted by what I can only assume are adolescents who spend way too much time in front of FM. Dickheads pretending to be ITK or agents, yet cannot spell a player's name right. That sort of thing. However, I also noticed that a number of posters were asking the site editors what the chances were of Liverpool signing certain players. And the site editors were giving ratings out of 10! Firstly, how would the site editors know? And secondly, what do you do when armed with that "info"? Run to the bookies? Put it on Twitter?

[Whelan]

There is no pattern here. Suarez was always going to be signed before before To**es put his transfer request in. I don't think the idea was to make us "happy". The idea was to complement To**es with another world class talent like Suarez.

 

It got fucked up once he submitted the transfer request. At which point we identified Carroll as a replacement, mainly for the future and not just for 4 months. Time will tell on whether the £35m looks like money well spent or whether we get annoyed with Carroll.

 

I wasn't really referring to that particular transfer, I was looking at the whole approach i.e. Suarez and Caroll being repeated with say Mata and Henderson!

 

I think that would exite us all, the doubts about Downing would be asuaged with Hazzard on the opposite wing. I think we are all worried that we will end up with Downing, Henderson, Adam, Dann and Enrique, Downing and Henderson would probably be close to £40 million, which seems ridiculous and considering the fact we have already spent £35 million on Caroll, we shouldn't really be repeating that policy.

 

Caroll will come good, I am convinced of that, and his price will be forgotten.

[Randy Marsh]

Some people have written off Carroll already and its quite frankly sickening.

 

Agreed, Andy will be a monster when fit, settled, integrated in to the team and given support from new players who will play to his strengths. I have no doubt about it.

 

With regards to the fee, I haven't heard anyone claim we didn't over pay for him. Everyone knows £35m was way over his true current valuation. But we need to look at it another way, we swapped an unfit and unmotivated FT and a useless Ryan Babel for Suarez and Carroll. It doesn't matter how much we paid for each, the fact is we are a far stronger side for their addition and that will only improve in the future, and we didn't have to spend a penny in the process.

[Antynwa]

I'll refer to a post I made a few weeks ago about Carroll. The time to judge Carroll is not now. For a few reasons

 

1. We aren't set up to his strengths

2. He's been injured

 

BUT

 

He has shown promise, I'm not suggesting for one minute he's set the world on fire. but what i've seen from him when fully fit, he's played well. Considering he's had the ball more often than not hoofed up to him, he's done well.

 

Look at the City game, with great delivery and full fitness he's a fucking beast. Away from home I.E Sunderland which was his best away performance he was promising and was unlucky not to score. People are around Carroll like a fly around shit, if we can't capitalise on his height it's hard for him to do much.

 

With pace on the wings, and delivery from the full backs like we saw v City we'll have a hell of a player on our hands.

 

£35 Million was a massive gamble, but time will judge wether it was too much.

 

 

The price tag had about as much to do with potential as us having £50 Million in the bank and everyone knowing about it.

[Whelan]

We aren't set up to his strengths

 

Fair points, but he has to be able to play to our strengths as well! This cannot all be one way, he has to be able to prove himself adaptable, otherwise we may as well have spent the money on Carlton Cole. He is supposed to offer more. And I do believe that he will.

[Mojo]

Bring back Aquilani, and tell him next season is the chance to prove himself and get an acceptable offer back to Italy and his gorgeous bird....That'll bring the best out of him, and get us a respectable offer.

[Antynwa]

Fair points, but he has to be able to play to our strengths as well! This cannot all be one way, he has to be able to prove himself adaptable, otherwise we may as well have spent the money on Carlton Cole. He is supposed to offer more. And I do believe that he will.

 

That's a fair point, but our squad is still somewhat mediocre.

 

We lack pace and quality on the wings, and Carroll or no Carroll we need that. I think he is adaptable, I mean look at the game v Sunderland we played very narrow with Suarez playing off Carroll and he still managed to play well.

 

I think given time Suarez and Carroll would be fantastic foil in our team, but we're building something. We haven't really had any major tangible strengths this season until we got Suarez in.

 

We are building towards something with Suarez and Carroll as the vocal point. Both are young, talented and have different talents.

[Il Fenomeno]

My problem at the moment with Carroll is that he's a target man and he's trying to play "in the hole". People talk about giving him crosses and service, but that's useless when he's hardly ever in the box!

 

And anyway, if the service is good enough for the likes of Maxi and Kuyt, then it's surely good enough for a £35m man!

[Whelan]

My problem at the moment with Carroll is that he's a target man and he's trying to play "in the hole". People talk about giving him crosses and service, but that's useless when he's hardly ever in the box!

 

I am not too sure that he is to be honest, I think he is simply looking for the ball, because as people have said we are not giving him anything at the moment.

 

Lets be honest, even when we had a dead ball the delivery was shite!

[Marjac]

Bring back Aquilani, and tell him next season is the chance to prove himself and get an acceptable offer back to Italy and his gorgeous bird....That'll bring the best out of him, and get us a respectable offer.

 

He had over a month of time injury free to prove himself in his first season in a new country. Get rid for as little money as possible.

 

YouTube - ‪Alberto Aquilani Juventus 2010-2011 HD‬‏

 

Apparently posted in December so most likely just from his first 4 months there.

[Il Fenomeno]

I am not too sure that he is to be honest, I think he is simply looking for the ball, because as people have said we are not giving him anything at the moment.

 

Lets be honest, even when we had a dead ball the delivery was shite!

 

That might well be true, but you've got to wonder why it's only him that doesn't get chances made for him, when the likes of Suarez, Maxi, Kuyt, Meireles get one or two chances a game.

 

IMO, It's also up to the attacker to create his own space so that he's in a position to receive the ball in a goalscoring area, this is what the likes of Kuyt, Suarez, Maxi and Meireles have been doing so well in the box recently. I don't know if Carroll is capable of that at the moment because of his fitness (or a lack of football intelligence).

[Whelan]

That might well be true, but you've got to wonder why it's only him that doesn't get chances made for him, when the likes of Suarez, Maxi, Kuyt, Meireles get one or two chances a game.

 

IMO, It's also up to the attacker to create his own space so that he's in a position to receive the ball in a goalscoring area, this is what the likes of Kuyt, Suarez, Maxi and Meireles have been doing so well in the box recently. I don't know if Carroll is capable of that at the moment because of his fitness (or a lack of football intelligence).

 

He could certainly do no worse than work, watch and imitate Kuyt! For all his percieved faults, Dirk's movement off the ball is excellent.

[Joe Le Taxi]

Why are people throwing their toys out the pram already?

 

Did you really expect us to sign a raft of 'galacticos' or something?

 

It'll be a mix, when there's news it'll be announced, until then ignore the papers, blogs, twitter and rumours

 

Yup. I don't read Twitter and all the newspapers and I'm happy.

 

Everyone needs to chill.

[Whelan]

Yup. I don't read Twitter and all the newspapers and I'm happy.

Everyone needs to chill.

 

They do say ignorance is bliss!

 

only joking!

[Joe Le Taxi]

Haha to be fair I did recently sign up to Twitter, I just don't understand it.

[18-5]

I like Henderson's transfer tbh - better than some Johnny foreigner crock who is unwilling to play on a cold winter weekend at the Britannia.

[18-5]

82 - Only four players created more goalscoring chances in the 2010/11 PL season than Sunderland's Jordan Henderson (82).

 

The other four players are 1) Malouda 2) Kevin Davies 3) Chris Brunt 4) Stewart Downing ;)

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I like Henderson's transfer tbh - better than some Johnny foreigner crock who is unwilling to play on a cold winter weekend at the Britannia.

 

Parrot what you hear on Sunday supplement much?

[ThewaytoRome]

Parrot what you hear on Sunday supplement much?

 

I know. What happens if you play stoke on a sunny august or may weekend?

 

Also sick of hearing "how would barca do against stoke, or how would messi do in the prem".

 

Simple. Barca would win at a canter and messi would rip the league to shreds.

[Trucker Paddy]

 

The other four players are 1) Malouda 2) Kevin Davies 3) Chris Brunt 4) Stewart Downing ;)

 

Cheers mate I copied the stat from opta Joe, so defo buy Downing then (;

[Guest PurpleNose]

The other four players are 1) Malouda 2) Kevin Davies 3) Chris Brunt 4) Stewart Downing ;)

 

Sweet. Lets buy all of them. Apart from the French one of course. He couldn't handle the cold. Or something.

[RobbieOR]

Messi would score about 100 goals a season in England.