Andy Carroll Must Adapt to Impose Himself on New-Look West Ham
Andy Carroll returned from injury to much fanfare during West Ham United’s goalless draw with Aston Villa on Saturday, but he will now face a fight to impose himself on the side’s first team.
Replacing Mark Noble in stoppage time at the Boleyn Ground, Carroll’s return marked the end of a disappointing long-term lay-off with an ankle injury and bolsters Sam Allardyce’s blossoming side significantly.
After this appearance, Carroll told reporters (h/t the London Evening Standard) how he was “champing at the bit” after an “annoying” spell on the sidelines.
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Carroll continued: “It is a great feeling to be back out on the pitch. It took a long time, a lot of hard work and I have to give credit to all of the medical staff for getting me back fit.”
However, the England striker returns to a much-changed West Ham side under Allardyce.
New signings such as Ecuador striker Enner Valencia and unearthed former-FC Metz gem Diafra Sakho have coincided with a new, attacking brand of football in east London, and the Hammers’ form has improved in turn.
In many ways, Carroll symbolises the negative long-ball style of last season’s West Ham, and the striker must now adapt to a side that has gone from strength to strength in his absence.
Andy Carroll
Carroll joined West Ham from Liverpool in a £15 million deal in 2013, following a loan spell the previous season, per BBC Sport.
The striker has made his name as one of the Premier League’s finest target men over the past few years and poses a threat as a lone striker.
After struggling following his move from boyhood club Newcastle United to Liverpool, Carroll’s move to West Ham saw the striker look to replicate the devastating displays that marked his early displays following promotion.
That half-season with Newcastle in 2010/11 saw Carroll stand out.
The striker's dominant, hat-trick performance in the side’s 6-0 home return to the Premier League caught the attention of many.
After the game, per the Daily Mail, then Toon manager Chris Hughton praised the striker: “He is a throw-back and a local lad and a handful for most defenders.”
Interestingly, Hughton mentioned that “all his goals were on the deck, which is pleasing.”
Hughton’s final statement points to an often-underrated element of Carroll’s game, and one which Allardyce failed to utilise prior to the striker’s injury at West Ham.
Carroll is a surprisingly adept technical player, and recent testimony from former striker partner—and an exceptionally qualified attacking critic—Luis Suarez underlines this.
Courtesy of The Telegraph, quotes from Suarez’s autobiography attest to Carroll’s ability on the ball: “I think people were wrong about him: He was also technically very good indeed. He can strike a ball very cleanly and with so much power.”
However, Suarez’s assertion that Carroll doesn't fit into “a short, passing game in which you are looking to release people into space” alludes to a problem that the striker may face in a changed West Ham side this season.
The Intervention of Gold and Sullivan
At the tail end of the 2013/14 season, Allardyce was staring into the managerial abyss, with fans calling for his head and his stock at the Boleyn Ground at its nadir, which stemmed from poor results and negative tactics.
Enter the Hammers' joint-chairmen, David Gold and David Sullivan.
A club statement, issued following “constructive talks with the club's board,” via whufc.com, indicated a sea change at West Ham.
These talks saw the board insist “on improvements to the set-up of the playing and backroom staff to ensure the team provides more entertainment next season,” in keeping with the club’s “values and philosophy.”
Standing as questionable demands, given Allardyce’s track record as a reliable but unattractive footballing coach, the West Ham board provided the manager with assistance on the attacking front.
The statement continued that Allardyce “agreed to recruit a new attacking coach to complement the existing coaching set-up as well as an overhaul of the Club's scouting and recruitment operation.”
On this front, former Hammers striker Teddy Sheringham was recruited in order to shake up the squad’s attack.
Furthermore, the West Ham scouting network broadened their horizons, identifying exciting targets such as Valencia, Sakho and Cheikhou Kouyate in order to strengthen their side going forward, while adding the reliable support of Aaron Cresswell at left-back.
The Hammers have responded immediately, and their current league form (W, W, W, D, D) is particularly impressive—without the once key Carroll.
A Changing of the Guard at West Ham
With the ushering in of Sheringham and the Hammers board’s stressing of more attractive, attacking game, the style of play at the Boleyn Ground has developed impressively.
Dedicated team statistics, courtesy of WhoScored.com, show that the team has adapted well to this style.
West Ham are no longer a principally long-ball side, with their average of 66 long balls per game leaving Allardyce’s charges 11th in the league in that respect; Burnley top the charts with 79 long balls per game.
This is not to say the old West Ham has completely dissolved, of course, and WhoScored.com shows that a lot of the side’s build-up play results in overlapping runs down the wing and a cross into the box.
Only 25 per cent of the Hammers’ attacks are focused in the middle of the pitch—in the league’s bottom six—and with an average of 26 crosses per game, West Ham find themselves in the league’s top four in this respect.
The patient, central-focused play of Garry Monk’s Swansea City produces exactly half that amount.
Furthermore, Allardyce’s side do still seem to excel when it comes to aerial duels, and Carroll’s almost unrivalled ability in the air would adhere to this quality.
Seventh in the league on aerial duels won (18.5 on average), West Ham are by no means a Stoke City (with a league-high 27.8), but it is still a potent tool to rely on.
When the going gets tough and the Hammers are penned in by the relenting pressure of energetic teams such as Chelsea and Southampton, Carroll is the right man.
However, it is clear that West Ham are now a multi-faceted side able to adapt their short-passing remit with a mixture of intelligent one-touch play and more direct, backs-to-the-wall football. As such, in returning to Allardyce’s first team, Carroll will need to adapt his style.
The Hammers no longer depend on his aerial talents or Kevin Nolan’s canny ability to latch on to Carroll’s knock-ons, and the effervescent play of Sakho, Valencia and Stewart Downing underpins this.
In order to succeed, the striker must prove his technical prowess. To secure his long-term future at the Boleyn Ground, Andy Carroll cannot be a plan B.
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