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The GoatyGav Column

Imperative To Hoof - Because There's A Big Target?

A conversation with a close friend, over a couple of beerios, during an England game some time ago migrated to a discussion about Andy Carroll. Not a fan of ‘Wor Andy’ my friend dismissed him as a bit of a lump up front to aim for. As the chat developed I voiced my opinion that tall players often had great touch, vision and technique. For the first time I heard the theory that, with AC in a team, the style of play would become one of hitting long, straight balls from defence in the general direction of him instead of building play and working on keeping possession. I took this on board. Since that time I’ve heard the same thing said by many other football fans. On this very site I’ve seen the ‘we always resort to hoofing it when Carroll’s in the side’ view offered by a number of posters.

Embed from Getty Images

It’s only recently that I have begun to question this. Just because you have a big, tall and strong centre forward does a team have to, or always resort to, by-pass/ing midfield with balls pumped forward directly from defence to attack?

If a team has a way of playing, dictated by the manager and coaching staff, then why dispense with everything that you work on the moment a ‘target man’ is on up front?
When playing a run of games at Liverpool I don’t remember that team always resorting to route 1 . Far from it. All kinds of different goals were scored by AC in his time on Merseyside. Some great examples, admittedly including some where he has used his strength and aggressiveness, on show from the following video. The footwork in goal number 11 illustrates the point fittingly: -

The footwork in goal number 11 illustrates the point fittingly.

AC has great touch and technique. He is quite capable, adept even, at manipulating a football on the ground. The ‘good feet for a big man’ tag, albeit a cliché that belongs back in the ‘70’s IMO, is extremely apt in Andy Carroll’s case.

Towards the end of last season, and at the start of this campaign, I’ve become increasingly frustrated with West Ham passing the ball backwards from good attacking positions back towards Joe Hart before it’s ‘wellied’ straight back towards the opposing 18 yard box. I’ve seen it happen from free kicks past the half-way line for goodness sake. And, from memory, when Hart has ‘sent it’ downfield it’s never been diagonally to the flanks. I can’t see that our coaches are telling the players to pass backwards to their keeper. So where does it come from? It’s seldom successful, except for on Saturday when Antonio ran on to a long ball from Hart (although that was following a neat Kouyate interception and quick ball to catch Burnley while they were exposed so could, with a little licence, be described as a swift counter attack), and, I suspect, even our 6’5’ Geordie striker has got pretty fed up with it along with so many of the rest of us.

More positively writing this piece has given me a good excuse to share the footage of that amazing goal from last season (any excuse quite frankly): -

Ok – since Lanzini has come back from injury we’ve started to see far, far less of this turgid, agricultural style employed. Count our lucky stars that the ‘Jewel’ has returned but I still wonder why the temptation has been to use such tactics. Is it really because there’s a unit to get on the end of the high, lofted balls? The team really should have far more confidence than that. Seldom should a team play that way just because a Peter Crouch or Andy Carroll are in the side. There’s far more to their game than that and teams of professional footballers should not be influenced to play that way. They’re not the only ones either. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is another technically excellent player as the following goal, which I rate as one of the best ever, demonstrates : -

I know much of the conversation, this week, has been around the pony-tailed one in Claret & Blue however i think this gives a slightly different slant on an old theory. Long range bombardment really doesn’t have to be the way to play, or even get the most from, the likes of Mr Carroll.

COYI! West Ham 4 The Cup!

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