‘Andy Carroll was fantastic’ - Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish delight at striker’s role in 3-0 win at Wolves

The England international scored the first goal of the game in the Reds’ victory at Molineux on Tuesday night, a year to the day since his £35 million move from Newcastle United

31 Jan 2012 23:30:00

By Miles Chambers

More On :  Liverpool, Wolves, Andy Carroll, Kenny Dalglish, Wolves vs Liverpool

Kenny Dalglish has praised Andy Carroll for his contribution to Liverpool’s 3-0 triumph over Wolves on Tuesday night.

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The 23-year-old striker, who arrived at Anfield on January 31st last year for £35 million from Newcastle United, scored the first goal of the game at Molineux before Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt wrapped the match up.

After the match, Dalglish revealed he was delighted with the entire team but singled out Carroll for his performance.

“We're pleased with everybody. It was a great finish for the first goal,” the Scot told reporters.

“[It was] a great ball in from Charlie Adam and a great finish from Andy, who played really well.

“He's a Liverpool footballer and he will make a contribution for us many times.

“He flicked on one on Saturday for Dirk Kuyt to score against Manchester United and did the same for Craig Bellamy at Bolton.

“If [Carroll] gets a goal he gets a goal, but his contribution is fantastic.”

The victory was the third big result in seven days for the Merseyside club, after they sealed a League Cup final berth with a 3-2 aggregate win over Manchester City and secured a 2-1 FA Cup fourth-round victory against Manchester United.

Dalglish said of the performance: “I thought it was a very professional, high quality performance from the players, a fantastic reaction to the previous two games.

“This game became the most important one because it was the next one. They applied themselves well and got what they deserved. I'm delighted with everyone who played.

“It was great for Andy to score a goal. Craig scored a fantastic goal as did Dirk.”

Liverpool propelled themselves past Newcastle & Arsenal into fifth in the Premier League with the victory, and Dalglish lavished additional praise on Welsh forward Bellamy for his role in the win.

The manager continued: “Craig was fantastic. The wee man certainly has been fantastic for us. I wish his numbers were the other way around.

“Instead of being 32, I wish he was 23. He doesn't do anything that surprises you. He prepares himself well for matches.

“He does things for himself within the framework of the team. You expect something to happen.”

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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

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19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
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