Monday 8 December 2014 09:03, UK
Sam Allardyce says there is more to come from Andy Carroll after his dominant display in West Ham's 3-1 home win over Swansea.
The striker, making only his fourth start of the season, scored twice on Sunday and made the other to help the Hammers come from behind and shoot up the Premier League table into third place.
Allardyce said he has been working hard with forwards coach Teddy Sheringham and after spending the start of the season on the sidelines, Carroll could be even more dangerous when his fitness improves.
The West Ham boss told Sky Sports: "He is unplayable if he continues to improve his match fitness, which only games can give him now. The movement is what it’s all about.
"We know the heading ability is there, but the movement and finding spaces to attack is where Andy has got better. Teddy has been talking to him about that movement and when he has space to attack he becomes unstoppable in terms of his ability to head the ball.
“When he stands with a defender and starts fighting is when he doesn’t get the full effect of his quality in the air, but he’s not just got heading ability, he’s got hold-up play and good touch.
"He played up top with a front man and it didn’t work quite as well with Enner Valencia in the first half, but it did when young (Diafra) Sakho came on."
The win sees West Ham climb into the Champions League places, but Allardyce is refusing to get carried away ahead of a busy festive fixture list.
West Ham face Sunderland, Leicester, Chelsea and Arsenal before the end of December and he believes those games will prove if the squad are genuine top-four contenders or not.
Allardyce added: "We put a five-point gap between those below us, which is a massive gap to make up at this stage of the season.
"It gives us an opportunity to build from here. We’ve got a full squad apart from Mark Noble and we will need that over this Christmas period.
"If we carry on over Christmas and come away with a few points - in two days we’ve got Chelsea and Arsenal, so what can we gain up to there and how can we do against those big two?
"That will tell us where we’re going to finish this year."
Allardyce also conceded that striker Sakho handled the ball before being impeded by Lukasz Fabianski, an incident which saw the Swansea goalkeeper receive a straight red card.
However, he says his side - who were 2-1 up at the time - would have won the game anyway.
He said: "It does look like he has got a hand on the ball, but there was a push from (Ashley) Williams and I think that contributes to the hand.
"It looks like it’s on the blind side of Chris Foy so I don’t think there’s any chance he can see that. Maybe we got away with it, but I don’t think that puts our dominance in doubt today.
"I think that we were going to win the game whether it stayed 11 vs 11 or if it went to 10 vs 11."
