West Ham's Giant Striker Must Start To Put In Some Big Displays

The Hammers need to get Carroll on song or it could be another long season.

- Lucy Woolford

Sam Allardyce signed Andy Carroll on loan from Liverpool in August 2012, and throughout the season, he made it clear he thought Carroll was worth a punt at a club record fee of £15 million.

As the Hammers face Liverpool this month, it seems an appropriate time to find out how, or if, the big striker has progressed from his former club to become a key figure in east London despite his fitness woes.

Let’s take a quick look at his performances so far this season, before getting a daft red card against Burnley, to see if in times of need Big Andy has actually been a shining light.

Spoiler alert: he hasn’t.

Goals haven’t been forthcoming for the Hammers, so we can’t be too harsh in singling Carroll out for failing to find the net so far. So what else has he shown in terms of attacking?

We also need to consider here what difference he makes to the whole team and how his preferred style of play is represented across the field. Yes, I’m talking about the long-ball.

His first appearance this season came in West Ham’s first win at home to Huddersfield. He managed over 80 minutes but wasn’t involved in either of the two goals. Of his six shots in the game, a stunning total of five were off target.

But we’ll let him off that one – he probably wasn’t at 100 per cent fitness and we won the game, so no harm done.

Fast-forward a week to the scoreless draw at The Hawthorns. He played for exactly the same number of minutes as the week before and to his credit won more aerial battles than he had against Huddersfield, with a 75 per cent success rate.