After the game last night both England captain Rio Ferdinand and England scorer Peter Crouch had ample praise for the performance of Newcastle’s Andy Carroll.
Rio Ferdinand challenges Florent Malouda last night
Captain Rio Ferdinand seemed to be very supportive of the new England youngsters throughout the week, and he talked about Andy’s performance to Sky Sports after the game:
“When the young lads come into the team, it’s great that the fans get behind them and they really did.”
“We had quite an inexperienced team out against France. There were two debutantes in Carroll and Jordan Henderson.” “Andy, with what service he did get, I thought he did really well on the night.”
“Henderson, it was a great experience for him to be out there and playing in front of 90,000 at Wembley and Kieran Gibbs I thought had a good game.”
“It’s now down to the manager how he integrates them into the team but hopefully he can integrate them into the set-up now.”
Rio lasted only until half time, and it seems there was an agreement with Alex Ferguson he would only play the first half of last night’s game.
And Peter Crouch, who will now presumably have Andy as a competitor for the England striker position, scored within a minute of replacing Steven Gerrard and was complimentary of the young Geordie:
“I thought young Andy did really well.” “He can be proud of his performance.” “For me, he can go on and become an England player for years to come if he keeps learning and adapting the way he has.”
“He’s a big lad and a real competitor, and I think he has what it takes to play international football.”
Peter can’t stop scoring for England it seems, as he now has the fantastic record of 22 goals in 42 games for his country, after replacing Gerrard after 84 minutes.
Gerrard went off injured, and it seems that Liverpool are now very unhappy with that, because they had some agreement with Fabio Capello that he would play a maximum of about an hour last night.
But it must be very hard for Fabio Capello to play an England side, when he has all these different agreements in place, and after all he wanted to win the game, even though it was a friendly.
Comments welcome.
11 comments so far
Doctapaul
Nov 18, 2010 at 1:46 PM
Comment #1England need to adapt to get the most out of Crouch and Carroll. There was hardly one cross from the bye line in open play.
Old ways: play a left footer on the left and right footer on right. Stick Crouch and Carroll in the middle up front, light the fuse, stand back and watch the fireworks. 🙂
Great debut from AC. Just hope he’s fit for Saturday.
StuW
Nov 18, 2010 at 2:52 PM
Comment #2Andy was the bright spark in a poor display last night. very impressed with him, as were a lot of my foreign friends(German and Spanish) who I watched the match with. To see a old fashioned forward in this day and age is quite nice, especially when he did his job effectively. Held up well aerially with Mexes, a few very nice flick-ons, good movement, tracking back.
Couldn’t have gone a great deal better, just needs to be close to the box than he was for the most of his game.
chuck
Nov 18, 2010 at 5:06 PM
Comment #3Though he was starved of any real service, Carroll did`nt embarrass himself yesterday.
But as Crouch stated, “if he keeps learning and adapting” intimating Carroll is not by any means the fiished article, as they say.
Have to agree with Crouch, who following one minute on the pitch had scored and showed both a sense of position and touch.
On another tack, why was a player, who`s fitness was in doubt prior to the kick off, spend the whole ninety minutes on the pitch, when forty five would have shown his capabilities?
Seems the national side`s managers have no respect for either the players or club managers request`s, to not risk further injury to the players, who`s wages they pay and who`s abilities the have to rely on.
National side`s managers can pick and chose whoever they want, unlike club managers.
Thump
Nov 18, 2010 at 5:29 PM
Comment #4Crouch had one thing Carroll didn’t – a decent delivery. If Andy had one ball in like that, I guarantee he would have put it away.
I was quite impressed with Henderson, he had a canny game (as much as I hate to say it) and did well against a far superior France squad.
ganiyu
Nov 18, 2010 at 5:42 PM
Comment #5I rate joey bartons services highly in newcastle and i wonder why he wasnt called up?jose enrique too has been outstanding and i say hes invaluable.tiote,wilo and colo too.krul impressed me the moment he saved nasri shot.im a big fan of krul.a galaticos of stars we have in nufc
StuW
Nov 18, 2010 at 6:51 PM
Comment #6@ganiyu – barton was most likely not called up due to his ‘punch’ of MG Pedersen against Blackburn.
Danny Simpson should have been called up as well, Jagielka played a RB, and failed. Warnock came on, and was silent. Simpson has been good for us since returning, and I thought was within a shout, as was Kev Nolan.
ganiyu
Nov 18, 2010 at 10:34 PM
Comment #7Comment 6-i disagree you cant compare jose game with simpson.i watched matches and they cover for his errors
Visten
Nov 19, 2010 at 7:49 AM
Comment #8Let’s be honest boys the england tactics were very poor and did not help bigger lad out at all. When Capello saw we were getting trashed he could have either put Milner on the right wing and brought Johnson on the left and then play Walcott off Carroll or like DoctaPaul said bring on Crouch and stick him up front with Carroll. Let’s be honest if Carroll had a choice would he have wanted Walcott or Beckham on that right hand side.
Moreno
Nov 19, 2010 at 10:21 AM
Comment #9Simpson should have been picked for England?
Are you on smack?
Honestly, we get a player called up for the national team and all of a sudden every englishman we have should be getting a call up. Simpson has had a few decent games, hardly deserves a call up to the national side.
ganiyu
Nov 19, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Comment #10Barton would have done better than milner and walcott.he supplies d ball accurately
moonraker
Nov 19, 2010 at 4:59 PM
Comment #11Waddle was right in that Theo Walcot doesn’t have a football “Brain”. Wednesday night was another opportunity he squandered when he should have shone.
But the worst thing about England was the central midfield where we were totally dominated by the french; I don’t think Henderson’s got what it takes and once the Joey Barton “punch” incident is forgotten, he will be called up by Capello and become a regular alongside Gerrard.