Andy Carroll has revealed that he has found it frustrating at West Ham as he prefers to start games instead being used as a substitute.
The striker made his first league start since November against West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday, scoring a brace in that game.
Carroll’s brace helped the Hammers win 2-1 and saw him get his first goals of the campaign.
Since Carroll last started against Leicester City in November, he has been used regularly as a substitute, a role he doesn’t enjoy.
“It’s been very frustrating, I’ve been sitting on the bench – it’s been tough,” admitted Carroll, as quoted by the Daily Mirror.
“It’s hard when you’re coming on for the last 20 minutes, when I have been I have probably been making an impact but it’s not really what I want to do, I don’t want to be an impact player coming off the bench.”
Last season, despite missing a significant amount of time through injury, the striker made 18 league appearances for West Ham scoring seven goals.
OPINION
Carroll should be frustrated with only being used as a substitute, but before scoring his first goals of the season on Tuesday, he didn’t give David Moyes a reason to start him. There’s also the fact that Marko Arnautovi? has flourished under Moyes and he has finally started to justify the fee the Hammers paid for him in the summer, so Moyes has no reason to change things. Carroll should just be thankful to feature at all at the moment, and should be patience for his chance instead of speaking out, as Arnautovic’s goals might dry up once again.