Newcastle Transfers: 7 Problems Andy Carroll Would Solve

4. We'd Have To Play 4-4-2

Okay, so perhaps this is wishful thinking, but Carroll's style would mean that Pardew would be forced to abandon his currently favoured lone striker system. Or it would mean that any other manager would be forced to abandon that system any way. Carroll would be pointless as a lone striker unless he had Siem De Jong playing as a deeper lying centre-forward, and it's pretty hard to project how the Dutchman will come back from his injury. Even if he was chosen as the second striker when Papiss Cisse is out at the African Nations, that would probably work in a similar way to Carroll's fruitful relationship with Kevin Nolan. Or there could be something in the idea of playing Carroll in the middle of a front three - though that would mean either dropping Cisse or forcing him out wide, which was the reason his form suffered so much in the first place.