Sam Allardyce appears to have changed his tune concerning Andy Carroll.
With a minor injury crisis on his hands which involves four players – Diafra Sakho, Winston Reid, Stewart Downing and one other, currently unnamed, the question of Andy Carroll’s fitness is high on the agenda.
Those with reasonable memories will remember that the boss said after the Villa match that the record signing was into a six week pre-season and the five minutes he played was the first of those.
Since then he has appeared in a practice game against Fulham and we might have expected that, given the manager’s previous assessment, he might get half an hour at best against The Toffees.
How a few injuries change things however, and in his press conference this morning Allardyce made it clear that the striker is fit and raring to go.
He said: “I wouldn’t say he’s 100% match fit but he is ready to start. He’s raring to go as is Carlton Cole so we’ve got very good options up front.
“We don’t have much time to work together for Saturday but that’s the situation we’re in, same as Everton. We’ll work on a few things today and tomorrow and then make a decision.”
What a difference a fortnight makes – WHEN IT HAS TO!
Not sure what the point of this article is.
If Sakho is injured then we need a replacement. If carroll is fit enough then what better replacement than a £15mill england international with a point to prove?!
What a partnership carroll and Valencia would be!
Having said that although it breaks my heart to say it, as he is fit Cole might be the better option to start with. Although if zarate is fit must come into contention for a starting place.
Therefore, I believe we should start with valencia and Sakho. But if Sakho doesn’t make it then we should start with valencia and zarate(if fit) if not Valencia and Cole.
Either way, I don’t think we should rush carroll back in (despite how fit big sam says he is!), as this would just be repeating past mistakes that were made with oor Andy and lead to his terrible injury problems.
Despite the mounting injury worries we now should still be able to field a strike force that is more than capable of winning any football match! Whatever the combination! COYI!
now we will see just how strong our squad is….injuries are a part of every club and how we suffered and survived last season still amazes me so now with what is without doubt a much stronger squad than we have had for a while we shall see how it copes missing maybe 3/4 key players and this time every part is affected from defence to attack….so it will be an interesting team sheet for Saturday against everton who we just cannot seem to get the better of over a good many years now…