• Liverpool striker scored four Premier League goals last season
• Alan Shearer: 'Age is on his side. He absolutely has time'
Andy Carroll might be short of goals at Liverpool, but he does not lack admirers. Roy Hodgson named him in the England squad for Euro 2012 and he enjoys the endorsement of another centre-forward who made an impact at Newcastle United. Alan Shearer's belief in the 23-year-old Carroll is unshaken despite the fact that he scored four goals for Liverpool in the 2011-12 Premier League season.
"People forget that the whole system at Newcastle was designed for Andy," said Shearer, referring to the urgency with which the side got the ball on to the flanks and then whipped it into the box for Carroll. "That was always the first movement. That hasn't always been the case for him at Liverpool this year. Maybe that's why he hasn't played as much as he would have liked to.
"Age is on his side. He absolutely has time. I hope he can build a partnership with Luis Suárez that's there for many years because he's a good lad, Andy. He wants to improve and he wants to play. I don't think that Liverpool should change everything just for one player, Liverpool are bigger than that. When you go into the team you want chances as a forward and he probably hasn't had as many as he would have liked."
Shortly after Hodgson had been sacked as Liverpool manager in January 2011, the Anfield club paid £35m to prise Carroll from St James' Park, but he has been on the bench quite often. The price was elevated by the fact that Liverpool had just taken in £50m for Fernando Torres when the Spaniard joined Chelsea.
Carroll has lately looked the kind of attacker who will battle with defenders rather than elude them, but the facts suggest otherwise. He has a career record of 44 goals in all competitions with Newcastle and Liverpool after starting on 94 occasions. He scored last season in two Merseyside derbies, one at Goodison in the league and the other to complete a recovery from 1-0 down when he struck with three minutes remaining of the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
Defeat to Chelsea lay ahead in the final itself, but he did make another impression, as a substitute, with a goal that limited the opposition to a 2-1 victory. Indeed, Carroll was very close to a leveller when his header was tipped onto the underside of the bar by Petr Cech.
Such efforts did not offset the fact that Chelsea thoroughly deserved the win. Carroll has not enjoyed good service on a regular basis. The recent dismissal of the manager, Kenny Dalglish, will have had some connection to the staleness of a midfield into which Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing had come at the combined cost of £36m.
Downing would have been cast as the provider for Carroll. It made sense that winger should be employed to supply crosses for a formidable figure such as Carroll, but any sense of a partnership between them was nebulous. Suárez has the skills of a deep-lying creator, but Carroll probably needs better service from the flanks, as he seemed to have at Newcastle.
Hope is being invested in him. Hodgson is not the type of manager to play to the gallery, but he must have felt that some sort of fresh start was essential. One obvious selection was rejected. Peter Crouch has not been selected despite a steady season with Stoke. His scoring record has been good at international level, with 22 goals from 42 appearances, but at the age of 31 his inclusion would have suggested Hodgson was drifting helplessly into England's past.
As it is, the manager has been bold. There was no attempt to squeeze an additional striker into the squad, even though the red card collected in Montenegro means that Wayne Rooney will miss England's first two matches at Euro 2012, against France and Sweden. Hodgson might have gambled on Darren Bent being completely recovered from ruptured ankle ligaments by then, but declined to take a risk with the Aston Villa attacker regardless of the scant alternatives.
The England manager does not seem to fret despite the fact that a brief and compelling tournament, which will be less taut after the expansion from 16 to 24 nations in 2016, allows little margin for error. Carroll's inclusion in the Euro 2012 squad gives Hodgson the option of fielding him as a lone striker supported by an attacking midfielder such as Steven Gerrard until Rooney has served his suspension. There will be early opportunities for the manager to display his tactical finesse. Carroll's club team-mate, Martin Kelly will join the England squad on Wednesday as additional cover for the friendly in Norway. Kelly, capped at under-21 level, will return to his club after the game.
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