Source: team_talk
Allardyce: Carroll will bring goals
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce feels Andy Carroll can make the Hammers a real force in the Premier League this season.
England striker Carroll agreed a season-long loan switch to Upton Park on Thursday after finally accepting his chances at Liverpool would be limited.
The 23-year-old, who cost the Reds £35million when he joined from Newcastle in January 2011, is in line for an immediate debut in Saturday's London derby against Fulham.
"He was pleased to choose us with a number of other Premier League clubs interested," Hammers boss Allardyce told Sky Sports News.
"We've got a top-quality player and I'm delighted to have pulled it off. I first tried to sign him a long time ago and it did not look like it was going to happen, so I'm glad it has.
"He's a huge player in this division who scores goals and contributes to build-up play, and has many different aspects to his game which can help us be a force in this league.
"In your first year in the Premier League it's all about who's going to score the goals and who's going to take your chances, and I think in Andy we've added a huge amount of goals to the team.
"Hopefully we can give him the service and he can prove what a good goalscorer he is."
West Ham's original bid to sign Carroll included a commitment to take the striker on a permanent contract at the end of the season, but significantly that is now just an option to buy.
"That was probably more of Andy's doing than ours," added Allardyce.
"This is a £35million player who wants to think about where he wants to go next, he wants to get some football in, he wants to be successful, he's ambitious.
"He wants to retain his England place which we can give him the opportunity to do by playing on a regular basis. Like every player we hope he settles in quickly and hits his top form.
"He took a lot of convincing to leave Liverpool until the position was made clear in the last week or two.
"He's found it difficult to get into the starting line-up and at the end of the day a position on the bench more often than a position on the pitch was not the thing for Andy and he needed to have a look at where he could play on a regular basis.
"He'll be in the squad tomorrow. Everybody should look forward to that, it's a real coup for the club.
"The co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold worked hard with me over a very short period of time to get this deal through and hopefully Andy will pay everybody back for the faith we have shown in him."
West Ham made a good start to the season with a home victory over Aston Villa but will be looking to bounce back from last weekend's 3-0 defeat at Swansea when they host the Cottagers.
Allardyce will hand late fitness tests to defenders George McCartney, James Collins and Winston Reid, who all picked up knocks at the Liberty Stadium.
"If we get in amongst Fulham and don't allow them to keep the ball then we can impose our home advantage and our encouraging start to the season at Upton Park," he added.
"We will try to expose the defensive side of Fulham which appeared to be exposed in the Capital One Cup defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in midweek."
