Liverpool head coach Brendan Rodgers could bring on-loan striker Andy Carroll back to play for the club as an impact player next season.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is mulling over bringing a £35 million striker to the club this summer, and whilst that sounds tremendously exciting, it is the one that they already own.
The player in question is Andy Carroll, sent on loan to West Ham United this season after failing to impress Rodgers, and according to the Daily Mirror, he will be offered the chance to return to Anfield this summer.
However, the opportunity is not as a first choice player.
Rodgers has reportedly discussed the idea of Carroll purely playing the role of impact substitute for Liverpool, as he favours a quick and short passing game between quick and short players who can pass.
Furthermore, there is a case to be made that Carroll is one of what is a dying breed of striker – a tall, physically huge but not particularly speedy player to launch it up field to, who can then lay it off to team-mates.
When more technical sides retain possession for much of the game though in an era of teams pressing from the front, there is little room for a striker who makes few intelligent runs per match, and perhaps this is why successful strikers of similar build in the Premier League this season – Christian Benteke and Romelu Lukaku for example – are much more mobile players than the likes of Carroll, Peter Crouch and Nikola Zigic.
Understandably, Carroll has found his niche at West Ham under Sam Allardyce this season, a manager who appreciates and makes the most of physical specimens like the 24 year-old, and aside from his poor injury record Carroll has on the whole played well at Upton Park.
There remains the possibility that the Hammers will bid for Carroll, but it appears highly unlikely that they will bid anywhere near the £35m that Liverpool infamously paid for him in January 2011.
There will be some big decisions for each of Andy Carroll, Liverpool and West Ham to make this summer.
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