Pre-season,
the most nightmarish time in any football fan’s year; rumours, gossip and
hearsay abound, players are linked with moves here and there, often on no surer
grounds than a whimsical thought in the mind of a journalist. Nothing is
certain, very little is verified and to top it off, there’s not even any decent
football to watch on TV. It is a little piece of hell that we football lovers
have to endure every year.
One
of the strongest rumours to have broken through into the mainstream press, and
therefore the public consciousness, over the weekend is the possible departure
of Andy Carroll from Liverpool. The 6ft
4” Geordie was signed from Newcastle, for a club record £35 million, in January
2011 by former manager and Kop hero Kenny Dalglish. It is widely known that the
Liverpool hierarchy paid vastly over the odds for the powerful striker and,
although Kenny Dalglish shouldered all the blame for the deal, like the true
gent that he is, it is clear to many that the now departed Director of Football
at Anfield, Damien Comolli, played no small part in negotiating the agreement
and settling on the exorbitant price tag.
The
circumstances surrounding the purchase of Andy Carroll from Newcastle United
might have had a lot to do with just how such a staggering figure could have
been agreed. With this statement, I am talking about the sudden transfer
request handed in by Fernando Torres on transfer deadline day and, of course,
the subsequent sale of the best striker
to don a red shirt and play in front of the Kop since a certain Robbie
Fowler came of age. The loss of Torres at such a crucial juncture, with just hours
remaining in which to replace him, coupled with the huge £50million fee that
Chelsea parted with to secure his services, had a two pronged effect. Firstly
panic, Liverpool needed a replacement and quickly. The second effect however
was to embolden the club to the extent that, in order to get a replacement,
money would be no object, and so it proved.
Fast
forward eighteen months to the situation as it now is. Liverpool Football Club
have, for the third season running, a new man in charge, with new ideas and a
different, albeit only slightly, philosophy. Brendan Rodgers is by now known
almost primarily for his footballing philosophy and his adherence to and belief
in it. The tiki-taka style, of which we have seen so much with Spain, Barcelona
and closer to home, Swansea in recent times, is at the forefront of the modern
game and it is a philosophy which Rodgers espouses completely.
The
feeling amongst the mainstream press is that Andy Carroll will not fit this
philosophy and that Brendan Rodgers has decided upon this fact already, before
even having a look at the striker in pre-season training. Is this really the
case though? Can Andy Carroll adapt his game slightly under tuition from
Rodgers? Would Brendan Rodgers, meticulous as we know him to be, really decide
upon the future of a player without even having a look at him first?
Carroll
is not the anti-football merchant that many of the article writers and “opinion
makers” out there would have us all believe, far from it in fact. Yes, he is
big and strong and great in the air, but that is a long way from being the end
of his rainbow. In his first season playing in the Premier League at Newcastle,
the Magpies played to his strengths of getting the ball in early and forming
their game around “the big man”, he looked like a world beater. At Liverpool
however, Carroll suffered, for several reasons. Firstly, the massive price tag
brought huge expectation. Despite Carroll maintaining that the fee didn’t
affect him, it affected the supporters who initially gave him much less support
in his early struggles than they did with Peter Crouch, for example. At times
last season, with the crowd on his back and the media ridiculing him regularly,
Carroll seemed to literally shrink with every poor touch or misplaced shot.
Secondly, Carroll struggled to settle to life on Merseyside, away from his
friends and family and, owing to a persistent injury which he arrived at
Anfield with, it took a long time to regain his fitness and to become a regular
starter for Liverpool. Thirdly, and perhaps of most importance, Carroll
struggled because Liverpool’s style did not revolve around only playing to his
strengths, nor should it have. Carroll had to learn. He had to redouble his
efforts in training, improve his fitness, hunger and game awareness and he had
to modify and adapt his game to suit the club that he was now a part of.
He
did it though and from February onwards a different player emerged in the
number 9 shirt; still big, strong and powerful, but now confident enough in his
own ability to show it. Much fitter, displaying a much more assured touch and
game intelligence, his link-up play and goal threat had improved exponentially
too since the dark early days of his Anfield career. Many have criticised Kenny
Dalglish for the way that he used Carroll and for the fact that he used him
sparingly, however, apart from not starting him in the F.A. Cup final, it seems
that Dalglish managed him fairly perfectly, given the dramatic improvement that
was witnessed over the course of the season.
What
all this proves is that Carroll can learn and, more importantly, is willing to
be taught. It also proves that he has learnt a great deal in his short time at
the club and appears to have the hunger and desire to be educated further in
order to become a better player. There are arguments for and against the sale
of Andy Carroll by Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool football club and this appears
to me to be one of the stronger arguments against any proposed move, especially
given his tender years.
Looking
at the ins and outs of a move away for Carroll, the first thing to say is that
a loan move should be out of the question. In recent years, Liverpool have been
massively burnt by loan-deals with a supposed option to buy at a later date.
Take Joe Cole and Alberto Aquilani for example, both long-term loanees, both on
high wages which Liverpool have had to pay most, if not all of during their
times away and both back at the club now for pre-season training with no
guarantee that they’ll make a significant contribution to the team or take a
wage cut to move on. Another reason why a loan would be folly is this: Carroll
isn’t going to learn to play the Rodgers way if he goes on loan to Newcastle or
West Ham or anywhere else in England for that matter and, short of going to
Barcelona or Ajax on loan, he is very unlikely to come back a better player.
Selling
Carroll now might be attractive to Rodgers because the striker’s value might be
at its peak after a good second half of the season and a decent performance at
the Euros. Whilst Liverpool have money in reserve for transfers and are willing
to spend big if they can identify value in the market, there is no doubt that if
a bid of £20m plus came in for Carroll from anywhere, Liverpool would be
unlikely to turn it down. However if Carroll could be integrated into the
system, which if we’re honest isn’t a million miles away from the pass and move
style returned to Anfield by Kenny Dalglish last year, then 20 goals next
season may be a better return than £20m.
The
rumours circulating about his departure, with interest apparently registered
from West Ham and Newcastle, emanated from a press conference which Brendan
Rodgers gave last week in which he failed to issue a “hands off” warning in
regards to the player and appeared to entertain the idea of a loan deal.
However, as was alluded to on The Anfield Wrap podcast (16/7) this may have
been a ploy by Rodgers, a managerial tactic picked up from his days with Jose
Mourinho.
This
strategy is outlined in a piece by Roy Henderson on level3football.com. Written
a year ago, it describes how Mourinho likes to single out a young player with
room to grow that he feels is mentally tough. He then challenges that player to
improve, often through public criticism and praise at the right time, whilst
using him to re-inforce to the rest of the team the message he wants to get
across. It has worked with several players at different clubs for Mourinho,
including JoeCole at Chelsea and Karim Benzema at Real Madrid. Whether this is
what Rodgers is trying with Carroll is open to debate but he certainly has the
potential to grow and is mentally strong.
Whatever
happens in the next few weeks before the transfer window slams shut, Liverpool
fans should place their faith in Brendan Rodgers to get his decisions right and
build the team in the image that he sees fit. If Carroll leaves, for the right
price, it will not be a disaster, it won’t even be a mistake if Rodgers feels
that there’s no way he can use him. However, don’t be surprised either if all
this paper talk is just smoke and mirrors, the manager may just have big plans
for the big man.
By Neil Patterson
Email: neil.b.patterson@gmail.com
Facebook: http://goo.gl/MJce0
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Neil1980
