WORST THAN CARROLL ?

Florin Radiciou?

Carroll is a much better player than he looks with us but we need to play to his strengths and we have failed to do so. I can't figure out why we signed him.

Wow I'm not gonna lie, had to wiki - Radiciou to remind myself about him lol surely the fee for him wasn't that high for Westham.

& I would rather see any of the above strikers listed playing along side Suarez today instead of Carrrol. (keane & morientes especially)

WhAt aN idIoT.............

Carroll is a much better player than he looks with us but we need to play to his strengths and we have failed to do so. I can't figure out why we signed him.
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He is the worst buy ever and if we play to his strengths, we would be playing HoofBall - a massive price to pay just to play to one player's strength

Best Post Ever. Incisive, balanced and knowledgeable. 5 stars.

Carroll is a much better player than he looks with us but we need to play to his strengths and we have failed to do so. I can't figure out why we signed him.
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He is the worst buy ever and if we play to his strengths, we would be playing HoofBall - a massive price to pay just to play to one player's strength

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Which again begs the question, why did we sign him?

I particularly liked, "He Honestly Looks Worse Than A League 1 Centre Back Whose Been Told To Just Go Up Front And Do A Job"

Honestly, the day Arsene Wenger lost his glasses when watching DVDs of Chamakh must now seem like his birthday compared to our purchase of Mandy.

Agger - I can only assume Kenny & co thought they could improve his technical ability (playing training with better players) and we could mix it up like Bilbao do with Lorente...sometimes direct but mostly on the floor. The problem is Carrols not 16, 17 ...technical ability should be there by now, & its the mental footballing brain that should be starting to mature now until retirement. Unfortunately Carroll is well off top player level on both fronts.

"and if we play to his strengths, we would be playing HoofBall"

Rediculous. This is a misconception many people seem to have with stirkers over a certain height, and is simply not true - especially in Carrolls case.

I have lived in Newcastle since 2008; and went to a lot of their home games in the 09/10 season - Carrolls best season I believe.

Anyone that watched a host of these games would clearly see NUFC rarely "hoofed" the ball to Carroll during this season. In terms of goals, he scored a lot with his head; but this was usually down to precision set-pieces and crosses, something we have rarely seen this season. Joey Barton was the set piece taker then, and almost everytime whipped it in to Carroll. How many of our corners fail to beat the first man - and how often is Carroll one of only 2, 3 or 4 players in the box?

Crosses usually came in from Jonas, Enrique & Ryan Taylor, and again usually picked out Carroll. Again, our crosses this season have been poor to say the least.

At NUFC that season they almost always lined up in a 4-4-2 with Nolan virtually playing as a CF. Watch any of Newcastles games that season and watch Nolans movement when they attack: it was either Nolan receiving the ball from Guthrie/Smith, playing it along the floor to Carroll then running past him to create space & an outlet; or the ball went down the wings with Nolan dropping off on the edge of the box. Carroll doesn't have that here, we usually play him as a lone striker in a 4-5-1; very unfamiliar to him and has undeniably lead to us hoofing the ball to him. Our midfiled isolates Carroll and on the rare occasion he is able to bring the ball down, the closest 3 players to him are usually the oppositions 2 CBs & their DMF. This was so notable when Suarez was suspended even a blind man could see it, Carroll was lost up front.

So in terms of playing to his stregths; don't hoof it, he has never shown that this is a system he can play well in. Play it along the floor to his feet. Have Gerrard/Suarez playing off him closely - he can't play an accurate pass further than 15yrds. Put in some decent crosses.