Carroll injury concern opens the door for Nile Ranger.
Posted on December 31st, 2010 | 119 Comments |
Undoubtedly it is a huge blow to Newcastle as they face a very important week in the quest for Premier League survival as they come face to face with two teams that are battling it out at the bottom of the league currently, but being realistic there was always a risk that Carroll would pick up an injury at some point.
So now we must prepare to do battle against two teams that we are competing with without our star man. Kevin Nolan will return to the side to at least add some goal-scoring capability, but the main point of all this must be the fact that Nile Ranger will surely get a run out in the first-team in the absence of Carroll.
Many people have clamoured for Ranger to get some decent game time, and with Shola Ameobi still recovering from a hamstring strain, and now with Andy Carroll on the treatment table the time has surely come for our highly-rated youngster to attempt to make his impact on the first team.
If you cast your mind back to last season then you will more than likely remember that Ranger was in a similar situation back then. We struggled for forwards because of injury, and Ranger came in and did a fantastic job. Hopefully this time around he can do a bit better and find the net.
It could also give Wigan and West Ham something else to worry about. Andy Carroll carries his own threat with his power and aerial prowess, but Ranger has different assets, like blistering pace, that could cause a different set of problems for the opposition.
I hope that we play Ranger up front with Kevin Nolan just behind him, and I hope it works out. You never know, we might even learn to be less reliant on Carroll in his absence.
Fingers crossed anyway!
I remember Leicester at home last season, Ranger up top held the ball better than any striker ive seen since Shearer.
Guthrie scored the winner if i remember rightly before he was written off after a couple of bad games…