Former West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has said that he feels that Andy Carroll’s playing style does not suit what referees what to see in today’s game.
Carroll earned himself a red-card after receiving two yellow cards within the space of 90 seconds during his team’s 1-1 draw with Burnley this weekend.
The Hammers were leading 1-0 at the time and manager Slaven Bilic has since admitted that he is not happy with the way in which Carroll acted.
Now Allardyce has stated that while aggression is something that is naturally part of the striker’s game, he also feels that referees nowadays will not entertain it.
The ex-England manager said: “Andy is so upset with what’s happened that he’s lost his cool. And that the problem Andy’s got. He’s gone and lost his control and composer and he’s looked at the situation in the first place and thinking the referee is not protecting him.
“And of course Andy doesn’t get protected by referees – he has more fouls awarded against him than in his favour – but it’s silly [what he did]. He leads more with his arm in the second incident than he is in the first.
“You have to cope with [Andy’s aggression], he is what he is. His aggressive style doesn’t suit what the referees want to do and what we want to see today. To take that aggression out of Andy… you’re losing Andy Carroll as one of the top players.
“Why does Andy get upset? This is about management from referees. I managed the players week to week. I managed the players with discipline, organisation and if I don’t do that I lose the players [in the dressing room].
“I then pass that management over to the referee who has to manage that very difficult game and manage those players, and if he doesn’t do that properly players will get annoyed, angry and lose their cool, and I think that’s what happened.
“Andy was silly for the second one [yellow card] but he should try and learn, especially at his age, that he’s got to stop losing his cool and carry on and punish the opposition and help West Ham win the game. But Andy’s type of game now is not what I think the referees are told to allow.”
