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Was that performance by Andy Carroll on Tuesday the best individual performance we’ve seen this season? I reckon so, with perhaps Steven Gerrard against Everton and Luis Suarez at Norwich running it close. But they both scored hattricks whereas Carroll didn’t get a goal against Chelsea at Anfield. He didn’t need to. Everything about his play on this occasion was just awesome. Did I mention it was awesome? Right from the start you could see him wanting to build on Saturday. The belief and self confidence was etched in his face even before kick-off. He won every ball in the air against John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic, and as much as Chelsea would like to dismiss this as loss for their reserve side I’m sure they’d prefer to have had those two playing in Munich next week. [insert joke about Bayern wanting to appeal Terry’s ban here] But it wasn’t just that. He was fantastic along the ground too. He kept getting himself in front of the defenders and even when the ball appeared lost, he’d somehow wrap his legs around the defender and tackle it to a team mate. His movement was superb as well, he looks so much more mobile now and you don’t expect him to fall over at every step. Basically, he was just unplayable and he was the catalyst for everything that happened. When the rest of the team sees that kind of defending from the front it gives them confidence. And when they see him bring down balls and flick balls on to Suarez or the wingers from difficult passes whilst under pressure from big centre backs we build from it. We keep possession and we keep momentum in attack. With so much attention having to be paid to Carroll, that other forward of ours is free to roam. That’s what Carroll can do for us. That’s what we paid so much money for. That’s what we thought we were getting. That’s what we’ve been getting for the past couple of months. And that’s what we hope to be getting next season. I don’t care if he only scores 8-10 next year if he delivers like he has done recently, because it will mean others should get many more than they have this season. You compare the current Andy Carroll to the unfit and overweight version of last season and it really has been an amazing transformation. By all accounts he’s found out or been told what it means to play for Liverpool and what it takes to be successful here. And fair play to the lad for taking action on that and getting his head down. Keep working hard and hopefully we should see a string of performances at this level in the future. I was excited when we signed him because having seen him impress at 16 against our youth team this was the kind of player I thought we’d signed. I think most of us had given up on that but now it looks like it is after all. Pete Schulz