Pass and Move is King Kenny’s philosophy, Pass and Move is how Liverpool will play next season, but how does £35million striker Andy Carroll fit into this? Firstly I believe the 22 year old will fit in to Liverpool’s attack next season, due to no small part because he cost so much money. They will have to make it happen somehow. In any case, Carroll and the pass and move style has been shown to work once this season already. In one of Liverpool’s best performances of the season, Carroll scored two goals in a 3-0 win over Manchester City. While the Reds went on to record a 5-0 win over Birmingham City and a 5-2 win over Fulham however, Carroll was sidelined with injury, and his integration into a side which had begun to find a fluid attacking style, was prevented from happening.
It was then inevitable then that his reintroduction into the team against Spurs would be used as the reason as to why the Reds capitulated so badly. Certainly, there is an argument to be had that the selection of Carroll in the starting line up disrupted the rhythm of the side both offensively ad defensively. On the attacking side, Dirk Kuyt had struck up a very good understanding with Luis Suarez, and the pair had been an integral part of Liverpool’s 5 goals victories over Fulham and Birmingham. In addition to this, the absence of a target man had forced others, such as Jamie Carragher, to pass on the floor more often than not and not look for the easy option to Carroll and lose possession of the ball. On the defensive side, Kuyt and Suarez led from the front with their pressing, and with Carroll only half fit, this lack of pressing meant the intensity in our off the ball play was lacking from the team against Spurs yesterday.
These are all reasons to point fingers at Andy Carroll for the display yesterday, but none of them are that conclusive. It is very easy to think that just because he was the only change to the side, he must have been the prime reason why the Reds didn’t play as well. As I have already mentioned however, one of the best performances of the season from the Reds’ point of view came against Manchester City, with Andy Carroll starting and scoring two impressive goals. From my point of view, there were may other factors more important than the disruption caused by an unfit Andy Carroll.
The reason we lost is because Raul was not there and we lacked creativity from deep in midfield. We could not control the game without him. Carrol will fit in fine, however this longball shit has to stop. Carra needs to improve his ground game.
Carra won’t be around that long given his age.
He wasn’t as bad with the hoofing as prior games to be fair, and he was a little more accurate, but it’s weird how he doesn’t see more immediate passing as preferable.