Tuesday, August 23

Should we play Andy Carroll in midweek games?

So another injury for Andy Carroll. We feel for him, but it seems Bilic is losing patience.  He said after Sunday's game: "Andy is Andy. He's dedicated now to training, to everything, it's a big blow for us, a big question mark also and big frustration with these things that are happening to him. The worst situation is when you plan, then you can't count on him. All the time." 

With hindsight, the medical team and Bilic should have been much more cautious with him. He played against Chelsea on Monday and then came on as a sub at FC Astra on Thursday, which appears to be more than his body can cope with. I'd always opt for a seven-day gap between his games in the manner of managers who nurse older players through the season. We have the squad to rotate now. It's also possible Carroll has a high pain threshold and because he's brave plays on through injury when he should go off. 

Let's hope he's only out for four weeks. Andy looked in great form against Juventus, and I really hope he can make a success of his time at West Ham. But after this latest blow, he really does have to prove he can stay fit for the rest of the season.

2 comments:

matt said...

100% right Pete. Same thing happened the other year at Southampton. Slav seems to be blaming AC, but surely he and the hapless medical team should have spotted that he struggles with a game every 4 days. He shouldn't ever have travelled to Romania; and I don't know why he went on with us 1-0 up ( in a series of substitutions that went really badly). Einstein, or Benjamin Franklin, or someone else, perhaps me, said: "It is often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." That could apply to playing AC in 2 games a week and not expecting him to get injured.

Pete May said...

I think Einstein was right!