Who is better? Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? The eternal debate will rage on over which is superior long after both football super freaks hang up their boots.
Maybe both will be eclipsed by the goalscoring exploits of Luis Suarez. Perhaps Neymar will also come into the equation. Anyone seen Paul Pogba boss a midfield like, well, a boss?
Whatever your personal preference let’s at least all agree that we are blessed to witness so many great talents all in one era. What a time to be alive!
But not every player has the sublime skills and mercurial talent of Messi, who sits on the brink of reaching 500 goals for both Barcelona and Argentina.
Not every player can scale the record-breaking heights of Ronaldo, whose goal in a 4-0 rout of Eibar on Saturday saw him become the first player in the history of La Liga to score 30 goals in six consecutive seasons. He usually adds about 20 more on average to that tally for good measure as well.
Take Andy Carroll as a case in point.
Nobody is going to make the case that the West Ham United striker is on the same level as any of those already mentioned. Carroll is never going to ghost past players and leave a trail of defenders chasing his shadow. He is never going to be the goal machine that separates the good from the ridiculously good. Playing 30 Premier League games a season would represent an achievement for the injury-prone frontman.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place in football at the highest level for the Andy Carrolls of this world.
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One glance at the former Newcastle United and Liverpool striker will tell you exactly what his strengths are: holding the ball up, physicality and as with anyone who stands 1.93-metres tall, heading the ball. A classic English centre-forward.
That last attribute is something that Carroll can make genuine claims to be the best in world football at. Carroll's forte is playing on the shoulder of a team's shortest defender, invariably a full-back, and lurking with menacing intent waiting for the kind of deliveries Aaron Cresswell and Michail Antonio supplied for two of his headed goals in Saturday's thrilling 3-3 draw at home to Arsenal.
His third, also via a cross into the box, was dispatched with the skill and technique for which he is so underrated for and the velocity that goalkeepers simply don’t save. As his manager Slaven Bilic gushed after watching his striker’s eight-minute hat-trick: “Andy Carroll has everything. It’s impossible to stop him.”
And in that kind of form, Carroll is simply unplayable and just as terrifying for defenders to face as Messi or Ronaldo. They say defenders fear speed more than anything, but dealing with a giant battering ram, one who towers over your most towering centre-back and is a constant threat from set pieces, is no picnic either.
But Bilic’s words of praise also came with a caveat: “He has to stay away from those injuries.”
Those injuries – it seems Carroll has been sidelined by everything from galloping lergy to Saturday Night Fever – have limited him to just 21 Premier League appearances this season and 74 in total since joining West Ham, initially on loan, in the 2012/13 season.
Keep him fit and West Ham have a weapon every bit as nuclear as anything Barcelona or Real Madrid have in their armoury.
sluckings@thenational.ae
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