English Premier League 2012/2013

Hodgson was at the game, he's smart enough to make his own appraisal of Carroll's performance

Hodgson's England teams have been pretty much picked off the back of hype and media pressure, so don't hold your breath.

Hence Ferdinand's call-up then, going by your argument.

They will when he's back in the England team on the back of it.

I watched the second half. West Ham seemed to be the better team and Carroll was about their best player. Seems justified. Made one absolutely excellent defensive clearance. I think he got an assist as well. Unlucky not to score with a great shot.

England should probably just pick Carroll anyway. He's probably the best in the world at what he does. Where not going to beat Spain or Germany at their game, so we should maybe try and play a different game.

And?

He deserves it, best target man we've got, better than just sticking with only Defoe, Sturridge, Welbeck or other random pacey English forward.

Andy Carroll is a really, really good player

Has Andy Carroll killed your cat or something Ninja, never known someone to be so bothered about a pissing MOTM award before

No one ever pays attention to MOTM awards though, give it a week and no one will even be able to name who the MOTM was in any given game its such a nothing award most of the time.

Which is, of course, why he failed so badly at the only club he's been at that required more from him than being quite tall.

Loads of players fail at Liverpool, nothing special about that

Nah. I don't care about the motm it just serves a point to critique the ridiculous culture we have in England.

People will then wonder why we can't produce any technically gifted players and then applaud a performance so devoid of any technique because someone put themselves about a bit as if they're unrelated.

1. England has always produced technically gifted players. David Beckham is the most capped outfield player, a man with no pace or physical presence and all technical ability. Compared to our great rivals and overachievers, Germany who have Lothar Matthaus as their most capped player. Generally synonymous with boring technocratic football.

'Technically gifted' as a phrase is generally nonsense. It generally means passing and control, but only by a player who is already known to be a good passer. 'The difference between a long pass and a long ball is the passer'. And it totally excludes certain techniques as being technique. Andy Carroll's outstanding heading ability is disregarded because he's tall. Long range shooting is also disregarded for some reason.

2. Looking at the potential England team for 2014 if we qualify - our midfield is going to be completely outclassed by Germany and Spain. Therefore trying to match up on an even basis is almost certainly not going to work. England therefore must innovate and attempt to become for that the sum of their parts. One option I suppose is trying to get the ball to Carroll as I reckon Carroll would have the beating of Hummels/ Boateng/ Badstuber/ Mertesacker if we can play to his strengths.

3. 'And Carroll failed at Liverpool because he was required to more than tall' - he didn't fail at Rodger's Liverpool, - he failed at Dalglish's - remember? Kenny 'hasn't adapted tactically in 20 years, hoof it to a target man, taking football backward' Dalglish.

4. 'Carroll gets assist' - 'Doesn't count because he's tall.' So? Messi would be a much lesser player if he didn't have great pace. Or control, or finishing.

5. In regards to his thuggery that he wouldn't get away with in European competitions. Andy Carroll has never been booked in an international game. He's also received one career red card. - while playing for Preston when he was 18. Obviously a liability - unlike Rooney.

6. Oh and that challenge on De Gea looked totally accidental - as a genuine attempt for the ball. He lead with his head and seemingly made no attempt for self-preservation. A yellow card offense.

Hoofing the ball aimlessly at a target man has not worked for the past 60 years, why should it work now? And we're not going to beat Spain and Italy hoofing it either.

Carroll was crap in the second half as he was the first, his 'unlucky' shot was easily covered by De Gea, he was dominated in the air by Vidic and if Probert had anything about him he would have been off well before that. His defensive clearance was decent, but he shouldn't have been on the pitch at that point.

He won one key header, against Evra on the back post, is English football still so far in the stone ages that the fact he's close to 20cm taller than someone makes him a good player?

Nah, he's a huge international liability. He never will get away with the stray elbows, thuggery and 'getting himself involved' that he does in the Premier League. A European ref would have had him off before the incident which he was actually booked for (which ironically, was the softest one of the lot), that's ignoring the fact that unless you play to the specific style that West Ham do he's a gigantic waste of space.

Do you really want players like Jack Wilshere hoofing the ball up the pitch for a caveman to win knockdowns? We've better players than that, we can play better football than that.

If we have to have a target man I'd much rather Lambert, not only because he's scored a ton more goals than Carroll but because he's actually showed under Pochettino that he has some technical ability.

You moan about English culture but I'd say you pretty much epitomise another part of what's wrong with English football, incredibly fickle fans. You write off a clealry talented youngster and just latch on to this seasons flavour of the week in Lambert just because he's banged in a few for Southampton. England actually need to build a team, Lambert will be on the scrapheap in a couple of years time along with the rest of the English one season wonders.

A fully-fit Carroll who's playing regularly should be in the England squad. Always a good option to have and he's decent with his feet as well - much better than Heskey, anyway.

Andy Carroll is fb.

England are a pretty shit team, we can't convince ourselves that we're going to be able to pass teams to death. We've got pretty good crossers and there isn't a better player in the air who is English, I'm not saying start him by any means but he's an effective plan B and useful for certain matches.

He's barely had a proper run in the first team since his Newcastle days where most people seem to forget that he was leading the line very well for a fair good Newcastle team at 20 years old. Lambert's had a good season but Carroll has shown much more potential than him and is already established in the set up, I can't see why you wouldn't want him in the team. Ridiculous to claim he has no technical ability either, just not true at all.

You moan about English culture but I'd say you pretty much epitomise another part of what's wrong with English football, incredibly fickle fans. You write off a clealry talented youngster and just latch on to this seasons flavour of the week in Lambert just because he's banged in a few for Southampton. England actually need to build a team, Lambert will be on the scrapheap in a couple of years time along with the rest of the English one season wonders.