Andy Carroll : Vindicated?

Liverpool's Andy Carroll, left, competes with Everton's Sylvain Distin during their English FA Cup semifinal soccer match at Wembley Stadium in London, Saturday, April 14, 2012. (AP Photo) 

A day after the sacking of Damien Comolli, we thought there would be some serious house cleaning is on the way in the Liverpool FC. After all, many of dissatisfied and short-of-patience-fans have voiced their anger towards the players that were categorised as sub-standard and most damning, acquired under the directorship of Mr Comolli.

One particular player that is under intense-scrutiny is none other that our £35 million striker, Andy Carroll.

He was an obvious target as he... time and time again, failed to impress us either with his left foot or right foot or header. He was easily dismantled by the opposition defenders and becoming a serious doubt in the minds of many, every time his name listed in the First 11 player sheet. 

However, we saw a different Carroll of late. It was evidence in the match against Blackburn as he won majority of the aerial duel  and he fought the fight and didn't fumble like he always do. And of course, he scored the winning goal at extra time.

On Saturday, the same anxiety reoccur when we saw his name, again. Knowing how loyal is Kenny Dalglish to his players, so we tend to just stay calm and hope for the best. I received a tweet from a buddy questioning not Carroll but Carragher. hahaha.... Carroll repeat his good form, he won the fight, he runs down to defend Brad Jones (I have said before he is a good defender though it won't be that good if he is to be confronted with a speedy striker) and amazingly, he won the aerial ball many many times against Sylvain Distin. I said amazing because he has improved and that is very very impressive, to say the least.

I don't really critical to any players who couldn't score as much as we would hope for. For example Dirk Kuyt. But we do appreciate any players that work his bone to fight for the ball. Kuyt is the best example. His tenacity, his freaking hard work has proves him a world-class player time and time again.It is a bit unfortunate that the age is catching up on him, thus making Kuyt an easy target for the media to spin the speculations of summer departures from Anfield. We hope he'll stay on til he retires at Liverpool FC.

So coming back to Carroll, as he plays better - and won back the many broken-hearted fans with his another winning header against Everton, we do hope Carroll to really really improves in his game. I longed for his left footer but if he keeps on scoring with his head, I'll take it anyway.

Many of us would love to see this kind of performances from Carroll in January where we lost Luis Suarez for 8 matches. Or in February and March when we were struggling against the minnows and become the butt head jokes in the Premier League. The winner of Carling Cup, only to go haywire in the matches against the likes of QPR.

Is Andy Carroll vindicated by now? Not yet. I would say the process is on-going, slowly but confidently.  

All Carroll need to do is show to us he is a hard working and tough player. We want to see him fight like Muhammad Ali for the ball and won't fall down easily. Many many fans would love to see that. The same reason why Jay Spearing is our favourite now. That little-man is fast becoming our anchor in the middle. Because Spearing showed his angst to win the ball by hooked or crooked, clean tackle or bulldozed if he must and for that, we salute him. Carroll must emulate this trade. It doesn't matter if in the process he didn't score. It's the fight that we want to see from him. However, if he kept on scoring, that would be better.

I am happy that at this juncture, I have proven to be wrong about Carroll. He is not that helpless after all. hahaha