It is fair to say that Andy Carroll ’s Liverpool career has started off slowly to say the least. The former Newcastle man has often struggled to make an impact in games and has been criticised for his lack of movement and poor fitness. I don’t think there is any doubt that he will come good at some point however, and this weekend’s game against Manchester United represents an absolutely golden opportunity for him to kick start his Liverpool career.
What better way to instantly win over the Anfield faithful than by scoring crucial goals against Liverpool’s two biggest rivals in consecutive games? If Andy Carroll were to score against Manchester United on Saturday it would act as major fast track for his settling in period and would help erase the memories of his previous ineffective performances.
His confidence must be relatively high considering he scored the winning goal in the Merseyside derby, and I expect us to begin to see a lot more of the Andy Carroll of Newcastle last season, starting with this weekend’s huge match. His slow start at Liverpool has perhaps made some people underestimate his ability, but throughout the course of this season we will all find out just how useful it is to have an aerially dominant 6 ft 3 striker with a deadly long range shot in the squad.
While there will be games when the technical brilliance of Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard prove to be the deciding factor, there will also be the uglier wins where the reds will have to really battle, which is when it becomes so important to have a player like Carroll waiting to get on the end of set pieces. In those tighter games, all it takes is one good delivery into the box and an equally good aerial finish to turn a loss into a draw or a draw into a win.
It is situations like these where I will expect Carroll to flourish especially, and combined with the exciting attacking options of Bellamy, Gerrard, Suarez and Downing I truly believe Liverpool can be a serious force this season.
A return to form for Carroll this weekend would be nicely timed, as it coincides with Gerrard’s return to fitness and also means that Liverpool will have all of their best attacking players available for starting XI selection for the first time this season. Liverpool’s start to the season has been average but steady, with flashes of absolute brilliance being accompanied by a couple of unnecessary low points.
One thing to consider is that so far we’ve been reasonably effective up front even though only one of our strikers has actually been in form. When you then add an in form Andy Carroll to the equation it really is scary to think how good Liverpool can be in front of goal this year. I believe his style actually complements a crafty player like Suarez and the big man’s attributes can give Liverpool a new attacking dimension. People can write him off all they want, but when Andy Carroll finally reaches his potential and hits form for us, there is no doubt that he could potentially be a catalyst for Liverpool charging back into the top four this season.
Written by Mark Wilson for Live4Liverpool.com
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