Liverpool FC: 5 Reasons Why Andy Carroll Is to Blame for Defeat to Newcastle

The reason why Liverpool were beaten 2-0 by Newcastle United was because of Andy Carroll. 

If Carroll didn't try to con the club that made him, Liverpool would have been 1-0 up and it would have been a different ball game. 

For every away game Carroll fails to score or provide an assist, he should pay the expenses of all the club's away supporters. 

I never thought I'd say this, but I'd take Andriy Voronin over Carroll because at least the Ukranian plays with heart. 

5. Andy Carroll's Ineptitude

It wasn't as if Papiss Cissé was a gem in the rough because he was one of the best forwards in Europe a season ago. 

The question is why didn't Damien Comolli buy Cissé for £9 million?

Instead, Comolli sanctioned the £35 million transfer fee for Andy Carroll, who is as effective as Franco Di Santo. 

	Carroll	Di Santo	Cissé
Goals	3	4	7
Games Per Goal	9.67	6.25	1
Shots Taken	59	51	21
Shots Per Goal	19.67	12.75	3
Minutes Played	1,599	1,543	499
Minutes Per Goal	533	385.75	71.29

* Premier League only. 

4. Being Clumsy, Slow and Predictable

Zlatan Ibrahimović can pull off lovely tricks with his 6'5" frame, yet Andy Carroll trips over himself when he attempts to do anything that isn't a back pass. 

That reminds me, for a player who generally always passes the ball sideways or backwards, he only completes 64.2 percent of his passes. 

Today, he was a bit above his usual self, completing a pitiful 65 percent of his passes. 

He has no pace, no vision and no ability. 

Somehow he's worth £35 million. 

3. Poor Positional Awareness

Andy Carroll's positional awareness is similar to a defender playing as a forward for the first time. 

Steven Gerrard put in a near-post cross, Carroll is at the far post. 

Luis Suárez looks up to see where Carroll is, he's over on the right wing instead of being central. 

Jonjo Shelvey dribbles past several Newcastle United players and Carroll gets in his way. 

2. Not Retaining His Position as a Centre Forward

Andy Carroll's tactical discipline must drive Kenny Dalglish nuts.

Carroll drifting out wide to the right made no sense whatsoever. He did that to escape the physical marking of Mike Williamson. 

Tommy Smith would have made Carroll cry. I cannot understand how a 6'3" tall forward can be so weak.

Man up and throw your body around. 

In team sports, inevitably you get social loafers on the team, and Carroll allowed Luis Suárez to do all the forward pressing. 

Carroll also wanted Suárez to lead the line because he was too scared of being hacked by Williamson. 

Not good enough. 

Carroll needs to lead the line, get hacked, keep Williamson and James Perch at bay, thus allowing Suárez some space in behind. 

1. Disgraceful Dive

Andy Carroll's pathetic dive showed what little belief he had in himself.

He would rather "win" a penalty than take the ball around Tim Krul and slot it into an empty net. 

This is why he has low football IQ because what happened three minutes earlier when Hatem Ben Arfa went down in Liverpool's penalty box? 

Referee Martin Atkinson waved away Ben Arfa's penalty claim even though José Enrique was tugging the winger's shirt. 

So Carroll should have taken a mental note: Referee Atkinson doesn't give easy penalties. 

Assuming Carroll wasn't going to do a Fernando Torres, he would have registered the first goal of the game. 

Nine minutes later, Papiss Cissé made it 1-0 to Newcastle United.  

In case the video is removed, here is a gif of the incident. 

Statistics courtesy of WhoScored.com and Transfer Markt.