Geordie boy Andy Carroll gives Shearer food for thought
The rain lashed down on St James's Park for Newcastle United's reserve team clash with Manchester City but it was clear that Andy Carroll was a man on a mission going into Saturday's trip to Stoke.
Some might argue that despite his lack of experience at first level, Carroll is tailor made for battles like the one that will unfold in front of a live TV audience at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday night.
His physical presence was there for all to see again tonight with two goals against Man City at SJP in a 2-1 win with Shearer watching on from the stands.
Big Al remained poker faced as Carroll netted an unstoppable finish after Xisco had won the ball at the Leazes End before the Gateshead lad smashed home with his favourite left peg on 16 minutes.
It was former Pompey star Benjani who equalised for Man City when he headed past Tim Krul on 32 minutes.
And even though Shearer could only watch on as Danny Guthrie hobbled off with a knee injury before the break with young eastern European Haris Vukic replacing him and putting in a good shift, Carroll was back to remind Big Al what he's about with a second strike.
Sub Frank Danquah slipped Carroll in at Gallowgate and this time a cool finish beat Richard Martin before sliding through the wet turf to celebrate in style.
Shearer also observed a battling performance from Alan Smith in the centre of midfield while youngsters James Tavernier looked promising again.
But Shearer will be happy that Carroll will have given him another tough choice to make ahead of Saturday's trip to Stoke.
Older/Newer
« Shearer's task is crystal clear | Geordies aren't so special - apparently »
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Geordie boy Andy Carroll gives Shearer food for thought.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.blogonthetyne.co.uk/cgi-bin/mt421/mt-tb.cgi/117551
6 Comments
Leave a comment
Profile
Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
In association with
Follow my RSS feed
Follow me on
Xisco looked better than I thought. Smith's found his level. I'd have Carroll up front on Saturday, though I'd play Martins on the left and leave out the hapless Duff.
Alan has some big decisons to make for the weekend, its clear Coloccini's confidence is shot, and is to much of a risk to play him, duff has lost his way big time, he seems to of lost the ability to go at defenders and go past them, to many times this season he has come inside, or given the ball away. Bassong is a must against stoke, and taylor if fit, the defence issue, is an old story, and us fans are sick of hearing everyone say the same thing, yes we know, we have known for years and years, but no one has ever got it right, is that down to them not being good enough, the stage and the fans to much, who know's. I'm not sure andy carroll is the answer, we need for owen and martins to come good, there our best bet, but the lack of creativity is a problem, but shearer has to balance out this, especially with a fragile defence, said it in my last post, we need to beat Stoke, if we don't, then it means we need to win at spurs,liverpool or villa, 38/40 points will not keep us up, we need to be looking at 42 in my opinion and above.
If there is doubt about Coloccini's aerial ability and pace then why not try him in front of the defence in a defensive midfield role? I think Vincent Kompany plays there a lot for Man City with some success... He might give us more stability and show why we paid 10 million pounds for him. We have to try something different because 6 wins in 31 matches shows our tactics haven't worked.
Do we need another defensive midfielder. We have enough. Granted, they're not up to much...
I really hope that Andy Carroll starts on Saturday along with Martins and Owen. Although i really hope that they don't waste Owen by making him play in the hole. I think Oba might actually make an amazing reserved striker! Oba can actually threaten the goal from outside the 18, is aggressive and quick, so he can add to the midfield battle, and has crazy control on the ball to open things up for Owen and Carroll! I think that would be really exciting to see. Oba could probably play that role as well as Gerrard, at least as far as attacking goes. Could maybe even be better?
Providing players are fit, my lineup would be as follows:
Gk - Harper
RB - Beye
CB - Bassong
CB - Taylor
LB - Enrique
RM - Taylor
CM - Nolan
CM - Butt
LM - Jonas
CF - Oba
CF - Owen
Nothing revolutionary here but gives us some solidity and pace to break with oba and jonas. If only one of Taylor/Bassong are fit, I would still drop Coloccini and play Beye at CB and move Taylor to RB.
At this point I would consider the 4-3-3 we have played before with Carrol taking up the...... ahem 'Viduka' role.