Rodgers: selling Carroll helped Liverpool striker Suarez

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has informed reporters that the decision to sell Andy Carroll was partly based on his decision to change the club's style of football and to help Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez.

Andy Carroll joined Liverpool during the same transfer window as Luis Suarez and has since moved on to West Ham. Rodgers has told reporters that the decision to sell Carroll to the Hammers was particularly down to the manager's decision to play a different style of football, and to help Luis Suarez's development as the first choice striker.


"My thinking was that, when you play with a target man, he becomes the focal point of your team, so everything has to be set up around the big guy," Rodgers quipped.


"Sometimes you get sucked into doing it more direct, and clearly, with my history as a coach, I don’t work that way.


"Removing that means you have to connect your game better through the lines, through the thirds. Possession is not good enough on its own, you have to penetrate. That’s what Luis does. He is always on the move, in spaces and in behind defenders.


"You look at the goals he has scored in my time here, and not too many have been from whipped in crosses, which, to be fair, big Andy was brilliant at. The style has brought out Luis’ qualities."