Could Andy Carroll help beat stubborn AFC Wimbledon?

West Ham’s Andy Carroll might not be at the club by the end of the year, but he still has uses. And despite the miss against Bournemouth, he can be effective.

West Ham’s cup tie against AFC Wimbledon is likely to see the Hammers mix things up quite a lot, but there aren’t many including Carroll in their teams. With Wolves and Liverpool coming up Carroll is not likely to play there, and so playing him here is probably the best thing to do. But it could also open up Wimbledon.

Our other strikers enjoy the ball into feet or getting behind the defence. Our opponents at the weekend are not likely to give us any space to play pretty football amongst them or in the box, and will sit deep, denying us space. The best way to score when your opponent is setting a deep defensive line? Get high balls into the box.

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Carroll isn’t as versatile as he was when at Newcastle and I’m not asking for the spectacular, but if you have an attacking lineup with him as part of a striking pair we suddenly have an extra option. Put the ball high and loopy into Carroll, the defence has to drop, and now the ball is in the box.

From here Carroll can knock the ball down, have a go at goal or simply make life hard for the defence. It opens up chances for the other strikers and creates pandemonium in the box. It’s not a tactic that will really work in the Premier League, but here? Yes.

Once you’ve done that a few times they then have to press the crosser, and space is made in behind those pressing defenders, opening it out for our other players. So by playing Carroll and opening up a direct option, we may allow ourselves the ability to play flowing football. It might seem counter intuitive, but I think it could work.

And I think there will be some backlash to this, maybe those who read this will think I love Big AC. Although I wish he was fit more often, I don’t want him at the club. Anyone who listens to our podcast regularly will know that. But if he’s here we might as well try and use him. Whatever gets us into the next round, right?