He’s a striker from ‘up north’ who now resides on Merseyside where he plays for his current club, after representing the black and white of Newcastle United, becoming something of a cult figure in the process. He’s ‘enjoyed’ something of a colourful off-field reputation, which has all but added to his fearsome on-field status where he could regularly be seen bullying defenders with his sheer physical presence and tremendous aerial ability. You could be forgiven for thinking this describes the former Scotland and Everton legend Duncan Ferguson, but it doesn’t; this player isn’t a pigeon fancier. It describes Liverpool’s current number-9 Andy Carroll, and you can see why the comparisons between the two are often made, which begs the question: Is Andy Carroll just Duncan Ferguson in disguise?
Carroll has grown accustomed to the comparison for quite some time now, leading him to insist ‘Don’t call me Duncan!’ not long after his move to Merseyside from the North-East. Although aware of the tremendous similarities between himself and the Scot, he is often keen to point out that his game is modelled on another striking legend at Newcastle; Alan Shearer, and hopes that he can forge a reputation as not just a fearsome player, but rather a fearsome goalscorer. ‘Everyone compares me to Duncan Ferguson now but I wasn’t always tall. I wasn’t a target man’ stated Carroll, before continuing: ‘So I used to watch Shearer more than I did Ferguson. He was unbelievable. I think he scored half with his feet as well as his headers and think I’m capable of doing that as well.’
However both he and Ferguson both seem to be cut from the same cloth, certainly on the pitch, in representing something of a throw-back player. The old-school type of centre-forward from the English top-flight, were these front-men used to bully their centre-back markers rather than the other way around. Often less prolific than other types of strikers, they were handfuls for their opponents and were often used to ‘battering-ram’ effect with their physical prowess.
That’s not to say that Carroll and Ferguson are identical players. Although standing at 6ft 3” and 6ft 4” respectively, Carroll still has some way to go to match Ferguson’s consistent aerial domination, and physically there are signs he needs to toughen-up more. It led former Everton manager Howard Kendall to recently note he felt the young Geordie goes to ground too easily when challenged by defenders whilst reminiscing that if Ferguson collided with a defender, it would be the defender who was left on the turf. So for sheer intense aggression, Ferguson had no equal. Not that that was always a good thing, as the Scot’s nine red cards shows. It would do both players a disservice only talk about their aerial abilities as their heads where far from their only weapons (though Ferguson liked to use his as a weapon in more ways than one!).
