Keegan: Carroll's the best
Kevin Keegan today hailed Andy Carroll's aerial prowess as the best he's ever seen and is backing the Reds' striker to follow in the footsteps of his former strike partner John Toshack, boss of Swansea when they last played at Anfield in the top flight.
Having worked with him during his second spell as Newcastle manager, Keegan is well aware of Carroll's ability and believes Liverpool fans are yet to see the best of him. "What people tend to forget about Andy is that he's still only young," Keegan said.
"I played alongside Tosh when he was at his peak but he was in his mid-to-late twenties at that point. Therefore Andy's best days are ahead of him and there's still a way to go before he fully reaches his potential. What I would say though, and this is meant as no disrespect to Tosh who was an excellent clever player, is that Andy is better in the air than he was. He's outstanding, probably the best I've ever seen."
Keegan has also praised the individual brilliance of Carroll's team-mate in the Liverpool attack Luis Suarez, the man who's now wearing the number seven shirt he first made famous four decades ago. "He's such a great player. He's got the vision that all great players have, cinema surround style, that gives him the ability to be aware of everything around them. And just like Messi, if he tries a trick and it doesn't come off he'll just try it again,"
But while impressed with what he's witnessed so far of the Reds' new attacking duo Keegan is quick to play down comparisons between their partnership and the one he enjoyed with Toshack during that glory-laden spell together at Anfield in the seventies. Their little and large combination terrorised opposition defences to such an extent that many observers believed them to have an almost telepathic understanding and given the contrasting heights of Suarez and Carroll it was inevitable that similarities would be drawn. Keegan, however, insists it's a lot more complex than that.
"You need to really work on developing a partnership. Study the guy you are playing with, anticipate what is he going to do in certain situations and generally get to know him inside out. Myself and Tosh were lucky in the sense that we hit it off straight away but it still needed working on.
"You can't just throw two people together, just because one's big and the other one's a bit small and one's got a seven on his back, the other a nine. It doesn't work like that; it's how clever they are, I don't mean in a sense academically clever, on a football field, football brain wise; how clever Carroll is at knowing what Suarez wants and how clever Suarez is at knowing what the other wants. If they get into that sort of mode, there's a chance. But that will only come over a period of time."