“Zarate – the perfect professional”
Even Andy Carroll has joined the Argentinian’s fan club praising him to the skies of the club’s official site and thus giving Sam Allardyce a real decision to make.
For given everything that we saw on Saturday, it will come as a massive shock if Zarate again finds himself playing second fiddle to Carlton Cole.
Carroll sees him as a game changer and a guy who can truly unsettle some of the best defences in the land.
As the big man prepares to for the visit of his hometown club – Newcastle – on Saturday he would clearly get a big boost from having Mauro alongside him.
He told the official site: ““He is great. He has got quick feet, he is nippy and he gets in and around defenders. He’s a great player and he showed that on Saturday because he changed the game when he came on.”
I can’t believe that Carlton Cole will get the shout ahead of Zarate of whom one insider told ClaretandHugh: “At his best he is world class and is now totally injury free. We all expected him to play on Saturday.
“But fair play to him. Despite his reputation for reacting when things go against him, he’s been the model professional since he arrived here and has just got on with it. There’s not been a single complaint.
“He got lost when the play went long in the last half an hour at Goodison but if we play to his strengths we will definitely lessen the impact of the current injury situation.”