Player Focus: Fit Again Carroll Could Yet Have West Ham & England Impact
On Saturday afternoon, after issuing a mild public rebuke to Andy Carroll about his fitness history, Slaven Bilic also issued what seemed to be a rebuke to English football. The West Ham United manager, who had just watched his side beat Liverpool 2-0 partially thanks to a Carroll goal, had just been asked about the striker’s chances of making Euro 2016.
Bilic was as concise as he was cutting. “If England is a serious national team and you’re trying to win the Euros,” the Croatian began, “then you can’t talk about the national team when a player has scored two goals.”
Bilic is of course right, and the reaction to any such burst of form says much about the current level of Roy Hodgson’s side. At the same time, there is a difference between a recent flash-in-the-pan and Carroll.
The 27-year old’s last international goal, after all, came in the European Championships. Carroll powered in a brilliant header against Sweden, setting England on the way to a 3-2 win and the quarter-finals. Soaring into the air and meeting the ball with such force and aim, the striker offered a moment that was pretty close to unique and even closer to unstoppable. It was the signature Carroll goal, and should serve as the archetype of what he’s capable of as well as a reminder of what has happened since.
He never really kicked on. For a few reasons, but mostly those related to the various injuries he’s picked up, Carroll hasn’t actually played for England since 2012. He hasn’t played all that much for his clubs in that time, either. The striker has not played more than 30 games in a season since 2011/12, and hasn’t played more than 16 since 2012/13. It is a conspicuously low return for someone in his early 20s and has naturally disrupted his growth as a player, and his rhythm.
Every time he seems to get anything like a run of form he suffers a set-back, which is undoubtedly why Bilic provoked such a big discussion about his fitness history now that Carroll has scored in consecutive games for the first time in two and a half years. In all of that, there was a slight irony in Jurgen Klopp enthusing about the English striker’s dominant impact on a game, and not just because he used to play for Liverpool. The German argued that Liverpool could have tried a similar approach in getting the ball up to Christian Benteke and, bad as the Belgian was in that match, the wonder is why they didn’t. As it stands, Benteke has won considerably more aerial duels per game this season than Carroll, at 6.1 compared to 3.7.
Carroll is still very impressive seventh in the division in that regard, and that is despite West Ham only playing the ninth highest number of long balls and joint 10th highest number of crosses, at 20 per game. Over the longer term, he is one of the finest in the air in the Premier League.
Of the 64 players to score more than 20 Premier League goals since Carroll returned to the top flight in 2010/11, he has scored the highest proportion with his head, at 50% - 17 of 34. Of players to make at least 20 starts in that time, meanwhile, he has won an aerial duel more often than any other Premier League player.
“There are very few guys in the league like him,” Bilic enthused. “There are guys who are more pacy running behind but he’s like English tackles and duels. He’s like the Duncan Ferguson of my time.”
Of course, he also argued there’s much more to Carroll’s game than being something in the air. “He looks really good to me, he didn’t drop for one single minute in today’s game. He was running, he was doing everything, he was tracking back, he was keeping two centre halves when needed – Lucas and Can. He is good and fit and it’s all about him now.”
He just needs to defy his fitness history. If so, he can still become a unique weapon in the future of both West Ham United and the English national team.
If Carroll can stay fit between now and the end of the season will he be in the England reckoning? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
