Friday 19 August 2011

‘Liverpool’s Andy Carroll reminds me of Alan Shearer’ – Arsenal's Robin van Persie

Andy Carroll, Liverpool

The Dutchman is a big fan of the £35m England international and is expecting a tough game against the Reds, who he considers title challengers, as Tomas Rosicky calls for results

Robin van Persie has warned his Arsenal team-mates about Liverpool counterpart Andy Carroll, comparing him to Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer.

Carroll, another former Newcastle player, scored the winning goal at the Emirates last season for the Magpies, but has since moved on to Liverpool for £35 million.

The England international has had a mixed time of things since going to Merseyside, but Van Persie said the Gunners will have to be alert to deal with the threat he poses.

“He’s very strong and reminds me of Alan Shearer in style - holding the ball well, heading it strongly, moving nicely and looking lively in the box," Van Persie is quoted as saying in Arsenal’s matchday programme.

“We’ve seen what Carroll can do before - he scored the winner here for Newcastle last season. We’ll need to be on our guard against him."

Liverpool have strengthened their squad in the summer, signing, amongst others, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing.

The Reds had a great second half of last season to get themselves into sixth place in the Premier League, and Van Persie expects them to be challenging even higher than that this year.

“I rate them as title contenders every year, and they look strong this time around,” he said.

“You can only look forward to games like these.

“I’m excited to be playing against them. Our last encounter, in April, was certainly dramatic and started in the 90th minute really! Hopefully we can give the fans a nice experience on Saturday.

“I’ve seen highlights of their match against Sunderland last week, and they seemed unlucky not to win - although I have to say Sunderland looked decent too.”

His team-mate Tomas Rosicky, who will be unavailable for the match, told his Gunners team-mates that they need to start passing the ball quicker at home if they are to avoid slipping up on as many occasions as they did last year.

"It’s time to show that we’re serious with our home results," he said.

"At times we played better football away from home last season. I think that’s because you automatically play quicker in away games, when you’re under more pressure from the opposing crowd and their team.

"It’s important that we pass the ball equally quickly at home - when you take too many touches you give the opponent time to regroup, to get their shape back. Teams drop off us and you need to move their defensive block around at speed.

"That’s what we lacked in a few games last season - we played a bit too slowly and held the ball too much.

"Passing the ball quickly is a basic strength of ours and if we start doing it consistently I’m sure we will have a very good winning streak at home again."

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