Carroll: Less Risky Than Suarez This Weekend?

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Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra
And not just because of some sodding handshake either.


The Old Trafford crowd
I'm not going to get into the rights and wrongs of abuse, and what's appropriate and so forth, and I'm similarly not naive enough to think that Suarez and Evra won't be booed when Liverpool visit Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime.

However, please, for everyone's sakes, let's try not to make the atmosphere too poisonous, eh?


Manchester United
Now, with that out of the way, there is actually a fascinating football match to be enjoyed on Saturday. Who knew?

Manchester United's injury problems seem to be subsiding slightly. PhysioRoom.com still lists them as having 11 players on the sidelines, but that includes Bebe, Michael Owen and Richie de Laet, with only slight doubts about Nani, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. Of their key players, only Nemanja Vidic, Darren Fletcher and Tom Cleverley are definitely unavailable.

However, there must be a few questions about their defence, without Vidic or perhaps Smalling. Plenty of praise was justifiably given to United for coming back from 3-0 down at Chelsea last Sunday, but one might equally worry about why they were 3-0 down in the first place. Rio Ferdinand's powers are waning, Evra's have been for a couple of years, the Da Silva brothers can barely stay fit for two games in a row and Jonny Evans is a stop-gap. There's David de Gea too, who showed why so many think he'll be a top-quality keeper one day with that save from that Juan Mata free-kick, and yet, he's still not the most reassuring presence in nets.

There is a sense that, without Vidic, this United defence can get bullied very easily, as was shown by their schooling at the hands of Demba Ba and Newcastle in January. And on Saturday, they will face another such bully...


Andy Carroll
There are signs. Signs that Carroll is getting there. His performances have certainly been improving of late, from setting up the winner for Dirk Kuyt in the cup against United, to finally getting a goal against Wolves.

However, arguably his most impressive performance this season came in a game when he didn't score - against Spurs on Monday night. He bombed around the pitch in the sledgehammer manner we have become familiar with, but there was certainly more of a purpose against Spurs. He created problems for their defence and was certainly a bigger threat than he has been, perhaps very aware of the freshly available Suarez on the bench.

With 20 minutes of first-team action and a few weeks' training behind him, Suarez could start at Old Trafford, but it would be a gamble - purely for football reasons rather than any of the other nonsense. With Carroll showing some promise and being exactly the man who could provide this United defence with big problems, there's no need for Kenny Dalglish to gamble on Suarez.

It's an interesting selection issue for Dalglish on Saturday, and for once Carroll might just be the least risky of his options.


Bolton and Wigan
If Liverpool v United is the biggest game of the weekend, there are a couple of whoppers just up the road.

The first is bottom-of-the-table Wigan visiting third-bottom Bolton. Something to consider, that perhaps hasn't been mentioned too much about Wigan, is that if they continue to gain points at their current rate, they will finish the season with 26 points. That tally has never been good enough to survive in any 38-game Premier League season, and would put them stone bottom in 11 of the 16.

So, unless something drastic happens pretty quickly, they're heading for the Championship. They are five points adrift of safety already, and with sides above them guaranteed to pick up points this weekend, they will be even further behind if they don't win at Bolton on Saturday.

The trouble is, that doesn't look terribly likely. They haven't won in the last nine, which admittedly have included some pretty tough games, but it doesn't bode well for a frantic relegation scrap.

Bolton aren't exactly flying, but they've certainly picked up some useful points in the last six weeks. Wins against Everton, plus the draw with Arsenal have all helped, edging them towards safety. If they don't beat Wigan, they will regard it as perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of the season.


Blackburn and QPR
It's a quirk of the fixture list that the bottom six all play each other this weekend. QPR's trip to Blackburn is arguably bigger than Bolton v Wigan, simply because both sides at Ewood Park stand a better chance of surviving.

Mark Hughes has already made an impact at QPR, with the win against Wigan and draw at Aston Villa, and will most likely point to Djibril Cisse's sending-off for the main reason for their defeat to Wolves. However, the flip side of such a heavy January of recruitment is that Hughes has to knit together half a new team and get them winning very quickly indeed.

As for Blackburn...well, sheesh. It's barely worth even attempting to predict what they will do. Will the side who beat Manchester United and Fulham show up, or the one utterly pounded by Arsenal wander through the door? The root of their problems is that, while they have the best scoring record of anyone in the bottom half of the table, they have let in 54 goals, the worst in the division. Which is hardly surprising, if Paul Robinson's positioning last weekend is anything to go by.

With QPR's attacking options, this could get pretty ugly for Rovers.


Wolves and West Brom
Completing the trio of relegation scraps is this West Midlands derby.

Wolves reacted to the boot placed up their jacksie after the Liverpool spanking to beat QPR last weekend, and push them out of the relegation zone, while West Brom's recent form has been patchy at best.

Again, with teams around them guaranteed to pick up points, both sides will regard a win as absolutely crucial on Sunday.


Tottenham
The visit of Newcastle on Saturday is the second in an incredibly tough run of games for Spurs. After the draw with Liverpool and this game, they have Arsenal away, Manchester United at home, Everton away, Stoke at home and then Chelsea away.

After that, it's comparatively 'easy'. In the remaining eight games, the only sides they will play from the current top half are Swansea, Norwich and Sunderland, giving them a very pleasant run-in indeed. So it's hardly surprising that they went for the safety-first, ensuring a point option at Liverpool.

For the next few weeks, they have only to hang on and make sure they are still in touch with those around them, and hope to cash in as the season draws to a close.


Harry Redknapp
Obviously, the other element for Spurs to consider is their manager. Cleared of all charges, one distraction has been traded for another, with every press conference between now and whenever Fabio Capello's successor is appointed containing at least one question about the England job.

Redknapp can protest that he is simply concentrating on Tottenham, but the distraction is inevitable, even if he is simply weighing up whether the whole thing is worth the bother.

It shouldn't have a massive effect on their season, but it might do.


Emmanuel Adebayor
While it's true that Adebayor is pretty important to the system that Spurs have been so successful with this season, it's also true that he hasn't scored since bagging the opener against Chelsea just before Christmas. That's 680 minutes of Premier League football.

Since Spurs haven't lost any of the games he hasn't found the net in, it might not be a huge calamity, but having a centre-forward who doesn't score much isn't ideal.

So, and I ask this only partly in jest, is Emmanuel Adebayor the new Emile Heskey?


Stoke
Football's a strange thing, sometimes. A few weeks ago, Stoke were near the top of the form table, but a series off soporific defeats later, and only QPR and Wigan are below them.

They've now lost three in a row, having picked up three points just once in the last eight. The most concerning thing for them is that two of those three losses were at home to sides they might ordinarily have beaten - West Brom and Sunderland.

They're obviously not in too much danger of relegation, but the past few weeks have seen them slip from favourites to be 'best of the rest' to the murky mid-table of 12th.

Nick Miller - hit him up on the Twitter machine, yo