by Reg » Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:22 am
Its a strange situation and shows the naievity of the football community.
Torres wanted out and Liverpool let him go at short notice.
Liverpool paniced and bought a 'likely lad' who'd done reasonably well for 12 months.
But did Kenny properly consider how and where he could be used when replacing Torres?
The team was set up for a SG=> Torres partnership, how would Carroll compliment that strategy?
So Kenny bought a handy footballer, but not for the team and style of football Rafa Benitez had set up.
Today we see it a lot clearer, BR constantly states a player must fit the role in his vision of how the team will play.
We never heard Kenny justify buying Carroll in those terms.
Kenny gave lots of support to the lad, even went to a pop concert to make him 'feel at home'
but the amount of time Kenny had him on the bench showed that he'd bought someone that didn't fit into his own vision
nor, as we see now, BR's vision of a league championship winning side.
The key question is did Kenny actually identify Carroll as being 'the man he wanted to fill Torres' place, or if he just bought a player.
As the lad never established himself as a starter, you have to conclude he was both a panic and a completely mistaken buy.
Kenny himself, bless him, never came out and said he was building the team around 'X' style of play and that Carroll was a pivot man in making that style a successful reality.
So a difficult to admit conclusion, Kenny bought him and once he'd arrived, had no idea whatsoever what to do with him.
Clearly Comolli nor Clarke had any solution so good riddance to them as well.
What a total fiasco.