Everton could be so much more, Carroll's qualities do not suit poke and prod football and how will Hull and Cardiff fare?
*Carroll's folk-star qualities do not translate*
Roy Hodgson's assistant Ray Lewington was in the stands at Upton Park on Saturday. The assumption was he was there to cast a selectorial eye over Andy Carroll, who has been drawing some quietly favourable notices at West Ham: fully fit now and playing to his strictly linear strengths in a Sam Allardyce team who are sensibly, but not overly direct in their approach. On Saturday the ball tended to arrive in the region of Carroll's forehead from the wide midfield areas rather than via the cul-de-sac football of the punted ball from the full-back or the goalkeeping hoof.
Carroll was judged man of the match by many present and looked the most likely source of a goal. There is some uncredited finesse to Carroll's game at times but he is still, for all his good qualities, in a parallel universe when it comes to the requirements of an international attacker. This is not to belittle him. He is simply playing a different game, our own indigenous, permissively folk-football version of how to go about scoring and creating goals. Away from these shores his strengths are often untranslatable. Two occasions stuck in the mind: first his attempt to control a dinked pass having found a sudden pocket of space "between the lines": the ball struck Carroll's shin and careered away to a Newcastle midfielder.
Then in the second half, with the ball hanging in the air above Fabricio Coloccini, Carroll came steaming across the Newcastle back-line and launched himself from 10 feet away, hurtling across and above Coloccini to meet the ball with a thud of his mighty forehead. The net result: huge applause from three sides of the ground as the ball raced out for a throw-in 30 yards away. A-plus for effort, not to mention gymnastic awareness. But this is simply not what is required in the mannered tactical poke and prod of international football.
For now at least Carroll should be prized for his strengths, left to graze on his indigenous pastures where he will continue to look an excellent Premier League striker. Picking him for England, though, is a bit like asking a bricklayer to do dentistry. Both are highly skilled, but the job at hand requires a discreet and entirely separate brand of small-scale precision. *Barney Ronay*
*Manchester United deserved nothing and got nothing*
Sir Alex Ferguson said Howard Webb gave United nothing all afternoon in their defeat to Chelsea and even went so far as to complain that Chelsea kept surrounding the referee and attempting to influence his decisions. Poor old Roy Keane and pals, evidently forgotten already. What Ferguson did not do, to his credit, was attempt to suggest United should have had a free-kick when Ramires dispossessed Wayne Rooney in the build-up to the goal. Webb got that one right, the tackle was clean. United even won the ball back in their own half and should have prevented it ever reaching Juan Mata but gave it away again almost immediately. As Ferguson admitted, United did not play well enough to deserve anything.* Paul Wilson*
*Everton could be so much more if they were proactive*
Everton are now almost certain to finish above Liverpool in the top division for the second season in a row, the first time they've pulled off this particular trick since 1937. This no doubt gives some of the Goodison faithful that long-awaited opportunity to dust off a chant of "We all agree/Lawton is better than Nieuwenhuys/Où sont les neiges d'antan?", but others may question the exact relevance of the stat to the modern world.
After all, while a little more bragging rights are always welcome, it's not been much of a bar for Everton to clear: rather like their counterparts of the 1930s, this Liverpool team are nothing to write home about. It's also worth noting that Everton's 1937 vintage went on to win the title two years later, something the cream of 2013 won't be doing any time soon.
For a side with Champions League pretentions, the modern Toffeemen are strangely toothless up front, a reactive side rather than a bunch of go-getters, which is maybe why a campaign that promised so much will end up delivering nothing.
To illustrate the point, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham have all scored twice at Anfield this season. Everton's draw there is no worse than City or Chelsea's result, and it gave them a point more than Spurs managed, but the lack of cutting edge has cost them over the long haul: Everton have lost fewer games than anybody bar United and City, and it wouldn't have taken too many draws turned into wins to nudge them up past their more free-scoring rivals and into third.
It might be too much to ask of David Moyes to unearth the new Tommy Lawton – and anyway, as Sylvain Distin will attest, he'd not get many decisions these days – but Everton desperately need some extra firepower (and perhaps a more proactive attitude) if they're to best their red rivals for a third year in a row and, surely more importantly, make it back into the Champions League.* Scott Murray*
*Spurs need Bale more than ever at Chelsea*
André Villas-Boas gets annoyed, understandably, when the one-man team stuff is levelled at Tottenham. "Those questions are extremely unfair," the manager said. "The team has to produce for our players to enjoy this moment of brilliance." But it did not stop anyone from thinking that if the club are to qualify for the Champions League, Gareth Bale has to deliver in the big game at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Tottenham have been undermined by the lack of goals from their centre-forwards while the hamstrings of Mousa Dembélé and Aaron Lennon appear to be feeling the strain. Bale did the business against Southampton on Saturday and in a match that Tottenham need to win, he must surely find something extra once again. *David Hytner*
*Wigan's huge win may cost them the Cup*
Victory came at a huge cost for Wigan. Chasing back in his attempts to stop Billy Jones shooting, Jean Beausejour injured his hamstring and is set to miss the league games with Swansea and Arsenal as well as the FA Cup final. Only Shaun Maloney has set up more goals for them than the Chilean and, with Maynor Figueroa already ruled out for the season, manager Roberto Martínez does not have an obvious option at left wing-back for the next three games. The midfielder Roger Espinoza ended up operating out of position at The Hawthorns and may have to stand in at Wembley. *Richard Jolly*
*The Merseyside derby needed a professional irritant*
Luis Suárez has been mentioned once or twice on these blogs before, so let's not go over old ground, nobody will budge an inch. But look what happens when there's no grit in the oyster. Has there been a more flaccid Merseyside derby in recent memory? What the game could have done with a professional irritant like Suárez, or perhaps a Kevin Sheedy flicking Vs at the Kop before giving the Kemlyn Road some as well. (Just imagine the pious handwringing if he pulled that stunt today.) Suárez was deservedly missing this time, for acting the fully stocked toolbox against Chelsea, but his absence informs the bigger picture: the foam-mouthed Disgrace Brigade, thinking of The Kids, seriously want this exceptional talent drummed out of English football. Which is a valid viewpoint, unquestionably, but here's what the Premier League will be left with if they get their way: a shell containing no pearl. *Scott Murray*
*Norwich may need Lambert's influence again*
There was no real needle in the sporadic booing of Paul Lambert at Carrow Road on Saturday, which is just as well, since the Canaries may yet need their former manager to do them a favour. Aston Villa's showdown with Wigan on the final day has long been billed as do-or-die for both those clubs but Villa's recent surge means it could be of more significance to Norwich, whose desperate bluntness in front of goal does not offer much hope of them saving themselves against WBA or Manchester City. *Paul Doyle*
*Why is Arsène Wenger so reluctant to unleash the Ox? *
Arsenal are winning games but are doing so by such slender margins that their supporters have been driven to distraction – any old distraction, really, rather than watching the 89 minutes and 40 seconds of listless keep-ball after Theo Walcott's goal at Loftus Road on Saturday, for example.
Another frustrated viewer is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has started only two of the last 15 league games. His emergence from the bench usually adds more than a little zip to Arsenal's play but, as on Saturday, the 19-year-old's cameo appearances have usually been limited to five, or sometimes 10 minutes.
Having enjoyed an impressive first season at the Emirates in 2011-12 and then being selected by Roy Hodgson for Euro 2012 with England, Oxlade-Chamberlain had been expected to make even more of an impact in this campaign. Four goals in 36 appearances suggest he has not, but only 17 of those have been starts. No wonder the England Under-21 manager, Stuart Pearce, feels he could use the services of Oxlade-Chamberlain at this summer's European Championship in Israel. This is one player who probably shouldn't be too tired from his season's exertions. *Paul Chronnell*
*Swansea's wait for a penalty goes on*
A tale of two penalties that were not in Man City's 0-0 draw with Swansea. And how Swansea didn't get one – what would have been their first league spot-kick in 35 league games – was astonishing. Michu touched the ball past Matija Nastasic and was brought crashing to the ground but, somehow, referee Mike Jones did not see it. Everyone else did. City also claimed a penalty when Edin Dzeko tumbled over the outstretched leg of Chico Flores. Dzeko was looking for it, though, and Jones, this time, probably ruled correctly. So a 50% success rate for him. Not quite good enough, really. *Russell Kempson*
*Can Hull and Cardiff avoid Reading's fate?*
Promotion to the Premier League is said to be worth £100m-plus but both the clubs already going up from the Championship, are in a stick or twist situation. Champions Cardiff and the runners-up, Hull, both need substantial reinforcement if they are to be competitive at the higher level, but both have also flirted with financial ruin recently enough to talk of "prudent" spending, rather than pushing the boat out. Will their supporters be happy with the approach favoured by Reading, who went up, spent next to nothing to safeguard their future and were relegated or will they expect the owners to "have a go", in the knowledge that the parachute payments should avert penury? Malky Mackay and Steve Bruce both talk of careful expenditure, but will be aware that too much thrift will leave them like Brian McDermott. Sacked. *Joe Lovejoy* Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 days ago.
*Carroll's folk-star qualities do not translate*
Roy Hodgson's assistant Ray Lewington was in the stands at Upton Park on Saturday. The assumption was he was there to cast a selectorial eye over Andy Carroll, who has been drawing some quietly favourable notices at West Ham: fully fit now and playing to his strictly linear strengths in a Sam Allardyce team who are sensibly, but not overly direct in their approach. On Saturday the ball tended to arrive in the region of Carroll's forehead from the wide midfield areas rather than via the cul-de-sac football of the punted ball from the full-back or the goalkeeping hoof.
Carroll was judged man of the match by many present and looked the most likely source of a goal. There is some uncredited finesse to Carroll's game at times but he is still, for all his good qualities, in a parallel universe when it comes to the requirements of an international attacker. This is not to belittle him. He is simply playing a different game, our own indigenous, permissively folk-football version of how to go about scoring and creating goals. Away from these shores his strengths are often untranslatable. Two occasions stuck in the mind: first his attempt to control a dinked pass having found a sudden pocket of space "between the lines": the ball struck Carroll's shin and careered away to a Newcastle midfielder.
Then in the second half, with the ball hanging in the air above Fabricio Coloccini, Carroll came steaming across the Newcastle back-line and launched himself from 10 feet away, hurtling across and above Coloccini to meet the ball with a thud of his mighty forehead. The net result: huge applause from three sides of the ground as the ball raced out for a throw-in 30 yards away. A-plus for effort, not to mention gymnastic awareness. But this is simply not what is required in the mannered tactical poke and prod of international football.
For now at least Carroll should be prized for his strengths, left to graze on his indigenous pastures where he will continue to look an excellent Premier League striker. Picking him for England, though, is a bit like asking a bricklayer to do dentistry. Both are highly skilled, but the job at hand requires a discreet and entirely separate brand of small-scale precision. *Barney Ronay*
*Manchester United deserved nothing and got nothing*
Sir Alex Ferguson said Howard Webb gave United nothing all afternoon in their defeat to Chelsea and even went so far as to complain that Chelsea kept surrounding the referee and attempting to influence his decisions. Poor old Roy Keane and pals, evidently forgotten already. What Ferguson did not do, to his credit, was attempt to suggest United should have had a free-kick when Ramires dispossessed Wayne Rooney in the build-up to the goal. Webb got that one right, the tackle was clean. United even won the ball back in their own half and should have prevented it ever reaching Juan Mata but gave it away again almost immediately. As Ferguson admitted, United did not play well enough to deserve anything.* Paul Wilson*
*Everton could be so much more if they were proactive*
Everton are now almost certain to finish above Liverpool in the top division for the second season in a row, the first time they've pulled off this particular trick since 1937. This no doubt gives some of the Goodison faithful that long-awaited opportunity to dust off a chant of "We all agree/Lawton is better than Nieuwenhuys/Où sont les neiges d'antan?", but others may question the exact relevance of the stat to the modern world.
After all, while a little more bragging rights are always welcome, it's not been much of a bar for Everton to clear: rather like their counterparts of the 1930s, this Liverpool team are nothing to write home about. It's also worth noting that Everton's 1937 vintage went on to win the title two years later, something the cream of 2013 won't be doing any time soon.
For a side with Champions League pretentions, the modern Toffeemen are strangely toothless up front, a reactive side rather than a bunch of go-getters, which is maybe why a campaign that promised so much will end up delivering nothing.
To illustrate the point, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham have all scored twice at Anfield this season. Everton's draw there is no worse than City or Chelsea's result, and it gave them a point more than Spurs managed, but the lack of cutting edge has cost them over the long haul: Everton have lost fewer games than anybody bar United and City, and it wouldn't have taken too many draws turned into wins to nudge them up past their more free-scoring rivals and into third.
It might be too much to ask of David Moyes to unearth the new Tommy Lawton – and anyway, as Sylvain Distin will attest, he'd not get many decisions these days – but Everton desperately need some extra firepower (and perhaps a more proactive attitude) if they're to best their red rivals for a third year in a row and, surely more importantly, make it back into the Champions League.* Scott Murray*
*Spurs need Bale more than ever at Chelsea*
André Villas-Boas gets annoyed, understandably, when the one-man team stuff is levelled at Tottenham. "Those questions are extremely unfair," the manager said. "The team has to produce for our players to enjoy this moment of brilliance." But it did not stop anyone from thinking that if the club are to qualify for the Champions League, Gareth Bale has to deliver in the big game at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Tottenham have been undermined by the lack of goals from their centre-forwards while the hamstrings of Mousa Dembélé and Aaron Lennon appear to be feeling the strain. Bale did the business against Southampton on Saturday and in a match that Tottenham need to win, he must surely find something extra once again. *David Hytner*
*Wigan's huge win may cost them the Cup*
Victory came at a huge cost for Wigan. Chasing back in his attempts to stop Billy Jones shooting, Jean Beausejour injured his hamstring and is set to miss the league games with Swansea and Arsenal as well as the FA Cup final. Only Shaun Maloney has set up more goals for them than the Chilean and, with Maynor Figueroa already ruled out for the season, manager Roberto Martínez does not have an obvious option at left wing-back for the next three games. The midfielder Roger Espinoza ended up operating out of position at The Hawthorns and may have to stand in at Wembley. *Richard Jolly*
*The Merseyside derby needed a professional irritant*
Luis Suárez has been mentioned once or twice on these blogs before, so let's not go over old ground, nobody will budge an inch. But look what happens when there's no grit in the oyster. Has there been a more flaccid Merseyside derby in recent memory? What the game could have done with a professional irritant like Suárez, or perhaps a Kevin Sheedy flicking Vs at the Kop before giving the Kemlyn Road some as well. (Just imagine the pious handwringing if he pulled that stunt today.) Suárez was deservedly missing this time, for acting the fully stocked toolbox against Chelsea, but his absence informs the bigger picture: the foam-mouthed Disgrace Brigade, thinking of The Kids, seriously want this exceptional talent drummed out of English football. Which is a valid viewpoint, unquestionably, but here's what the Premier League will be left with if they get their way: a shell containing no pearl. *Scott Murray*
*Norwich may need Lambert's influence again*
There was no real needle in the sporadic booing of Paul Lambert at Carrow Road on Saturday, which is just as well, since the Canaries may yet need their former manager to do them a favour. Aston Villa's showdown with Wigan on the final day has long been billed as do-or-die for both those clubs but Villa's recent surge means it could be of more significance to Norwich, whose desperate bluntness in front of goal does not offer much hope of them saving themselves against WBA or Manchester City. *Paul Doyle*
*Why is Arsène Wenger so reluctant to unleash the Ox? *
Arsenal are winning games but are doing so by such slender margins that their supporters have been driven to distraction – any old distraction, really, rather than watching the 89 minutes and 40 seconds of listless keep-ball after Theo Walcott's goal at Loftus Road on Saturday, for example.
Another frustrated viewer is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has started only two of the last 15 league games. His emergence from the bench usually adds more than a little zip to Arsenal's play but, as on Saturday, the 19-year-old's cameo appearances have usually been limited to five, or sometimes 10 minutes.
Having enjoyed an impressive first season at the Emirates in 2011-12 and then being selected by Roy Hodgson for Euro 2012 with England, Oxlade-Chamberlain had been expected to make even more of an impact in this campaign. Four goals in 36 appearances suggest he has not, but only 17 of those have been starts. No wonder the England Under-21 manager, Stuart Pearce, feels he could use the services of Oxlade-Chamberlain at this summer's European Championship in Israel. This is one player who probably shouldn't be too tired from his season's exertions. *Paul Chronnell*
*Swansea's wait for a penalty goes on*
A tale of two penalties that were not in Man City's 0-0 draw with Swansea. And how Swansea didn't get one – what would have been their first league spot-kick in 35 league games – was astonishing. Michu touched the ball past Matija Nastasic and was brought crashing to the ground but, somehow, referee Mike Jones did not see it. Everyone else did. City also claimed a penalty when Edin Dzeko tumbled over the outstretched leg of Chico Flores. Dzeko was looking for it, though, and Jones, this time, probably ruled correctly. So a 50% success rate for him. Not quite good enough, really. *Russell Kempson*
*Can Hull and Cardiff avoid Reading's fate?*
Promotion to the Premier League is said to be worth £100m-plus but both the clubs already going up from the Championship, are in a stick or twist situation. Champions Cardiff and the runners-up, Hull, both need substantial reinforcement if they are to be competitive at the higher level, but both have also flirted with financial ruin recently enough to talk of "prudent" spending, rather than pushing the boat out. Will their supporters be happy with the approach favoured by Reading, who went up, spent next to nothing to safeguard their future and were relegated or will they expect the owners to "have a go", in the knowledge that the parachute payments should avert penury? Malky Mackay and Steve Bruce both talk of careful expenditure, but will be aware that too much thrift will leave them like Brian McDermott. Sacked. *Joe Lovejoy* Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 days ago.