Carroll’s double gives us huge hopes
Irons 2 Juventus 3
Match verdict
Ok, it was a pre season friendly but at last Andy Carroll showed himself as a guy who may just be the 20 goal a season striker we need so badly. It’s all about keeping him fit!
Two fine headers produced the goals that brought the Hammers back from 2-0 down, although the first needed a final nudge before one time Hammers target Zaza gave the Italians victory in the last few minutes.
But there were few complaints from most after this final work out in sweltering sunshine although once again we showed our ability to get off to seriously slow start and be forced to battle our way back into things.
AC’s goals came via great crosses from Sam Byram as a makeshift left back and skipper Mark Noble after we had been second best for the first half of the first half.
Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic had put Juve into a comfortable lead with our defence looking very fragile – a situation Slav addressed by introducing Ginge and Reece Burke at right back in the second.
Dimi Payet arrived off the bench in the 75th minute to rapturous applause as a caacity crowd exervised the lungs with a quicj chorus of “We’ve got Payet.”
It would be as well not to make too many judgements as to where we are at this stage but AC was a class act and Enner Valencia worked hard on the ball, hitting the post in the first half.
Another week of tweaking and tuning, a fully fit Dimi and our new left back in place – believed now to be Arthur Masuaku along with Andre Ayew and we will be fine.
COYI