Andy Carroll has come in for a huge amount of criticism for a long time.
But he’s currently being forced to carry the full burden of the team’s attacking responsibility with Mauro Zarate.
So how’s he doing? ClaretandHugh’s Facebook members have been responding to his current form.
Richard Stephenson 父 He probably had his best game in an long while yesterday!
Martin Pacetti Thought he worked his socks off yesterday, can’t criticise him for the effort he put in
Reece Whufc Strong played well imo, just needs to keep it simple
Stephen Snell He will get better as his fitness improves and to anyone who has had a ligament repair in the knee needs to learn to trust the knee again and that takes time. He will come good again
Mike Tricker I thought Andy looked a bit fitter yesterday and tried very manfully to be the one that chases down and harries the back four.
Fitness is obviously a major thing, but so perhaps is attitude to the dynamics of the game – on Saturday, it looked like the big man had woken up to the fact that, in the way the manager is asking the team to play, he has to be as mobile as possible, he has to be dynamic in his movement, and use his brain to open space for other people when they have the ball. Clearly he isn’t AS good as Sakho in doing that, because Sakho is made that way, whereas Big Man is having to adapt himself. But, the evidence of Saturday showed (to me anyway) that he is willing to try. He played well with little reward for himself, his touch was good, his movement was good, and the fact that he was willing to chase down balls, when he isn’t the most fleet footed of individuals, shows heart. I’m quietly confident.
He was indeed much better yesterday, the thing is he was so abysmal the other matches that it wasn’t too hard. Let’s see what the trend is from here.
Ac Needs at least 8 Games consistently 2 get Match Fit, B4 we C the best of him, The Big Question is can he avoid Another Injury ? Lets hope So