Patrick Barclay: Get Andy Carroll firing and England's opponents at Euro 2016 will have plenty to fear

Ahead of the game: Carroll dominates the Liverpool defence
Patrick Barclay4 January 2016

How many Premier League strikers could have scored Wayne Rooney’s ‘wonder goal’ on Saturday? Pretty well any, on a given day. But how many could have scored one like the Andy Carroll header that helped West Ham to beat Liverpool?

That’s the reason Carroll will be on Roy Hodgson’s mind: he gives you the possibility of something different, something no defence can cope with. He has that scientifically nonsensical ability to hang in the air and, while Newton’s ideas of gravity affect everyone else, head the ball in his own time.

The frustration — for Hodgson, Slaven Bilic and everyone connected with West Ham — is that (a) the conditions have to be right and that (b) these include not only quality service, which Aaron Cresswell duly provided on Saturday, but his own physical and mental condition.

We know all about the physical — the injuries that have restricted Carroll to a mere 109 League appearances and 23 goals, or fewer than five per season, since Liverpool paid Newcastle £35million for him — and now Bilic has confirmed that these are not entirely unconnected to an over carefree attitude to the game. “Is he going to maintain his progress and look after himself?” asks the West Ham manager, and both he and Hodgson will be hoping that the answer is as smile-inducing a surprise as, say, the sight of a striped leopard being led on to the Upton Park pitch while pigs fly past.

What does January hold for West Ham?

1/3

Carroll is far from the main man at West Ham. How can he be with the divine Dimitri Payet restored to the ranks? But, with Carroll a regular, the top four would be a lot more realistic.

While a player as effective in the air as Carroll can crucially improve a team at both ends — his defensive work was excellent on Saturday — it will be the prospect of seeing how England’s summer opponents might deal with him that excites Hodgson. Fingers crossed all round.

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