Sam Allardyce must have felt like the man who discovered peanut butter and chocolate when West Ham United followed up the signing of Matt Jarvis with that of Andy Carroll during the summer of 2012.
The man with the most accurate crosses in European football paired with one of the most fearsome headers of a ball anywhere on the continent. On paper, Matt Jarvis and Andy Carroll were a match made in footballing heaven.
And while that partnership did not quite deliver the results West Ham United or Sam Allardyce were hoping for – Jarvis created the most chances in the Premier League of any player without an assist to his name [46] during the 2012/13 season – the club’s one-time record signing still looks back fondly on supplying the ammunition for the hulking figure of Carroll.
Allardyce loved Matt Jarvis’ ability to drive down the flank, leave his full-back for dead, and fire cross after cross into the penalty area.
In an era where inverted wingers were just starting to become the norm, the £10.75 million acquisition from Wolverhampton Wanderers already felt like something of a throwback.
Now, speaking alongside Allardyce on the No Tippy Tappy Podcast, Jarvis reflects on what life was like serving a very demanding customer.
Matt Jarvis on what Andy Carroll ‘hated’ at West Ham United
Carroll, Jarvis recalls, was not the type to keep his frustrations in check. If the sky-scraping centre-forward had a problem with the service coming his way, he had no issues kicking up a fuss.
“I remember when I first signed, [Allardyce] was like; ‘I’ve got someone else who is going to benefit ‘from your arrival]’,” Jarvis says. “And it was Andy.
“He used to hammer me all the time, Andy. He didn’t want a whipped cross, he hated whipped crosses.
“[Carroll would tell me to] ‘Hang it up, just try and dink it to the far post’. Because the ‘keeper would come out and he was like a battering ram, he would just take everyone with him.
“I haven’t seen many people who had that heading connection like he had.”
Capped once by England, Jarvis would end up providing only three Premier League assists in a West Ham shirt, even if the strikers at Allardyce’s disposal will have to accept their share of the blame for that.
The now-39-year-old Jarvis credits Allardyce for teaching him a few new tricks at Upton Park, meanwhile.
Jarvis explains what he learned under Sam Allardyce at Upton Park
For all the criticism that has been aimed towards ‘Big Sam’ over the years for his occasionally crash-and-bang approach, almost everyone who has shared a dressing room with him speaks warmly about the depth of Allardyce’s tactical understanding.
“I was a wide player who put crosses in. I put in the most successful crosses in Europe during my last season at Wolves and my first at West Ham,” adds Jarvis, who would go on to represent Norwich City, Walsall and Woking before retiring in 2021.
“So I wasn’t just throwing crosses in willy-nilly.
“I had to learn other things [at West Ham]; Set-pieces, goal kicks, free-kicks outside the box. I had to learn about pinning full-backs and centre-halves. I had to know if the cross was coming in on the right and I wasn’t coming in on the far post, I was getting a rollocking.
“You know if you’re not there [at the back post], you’re in big trouble! But also, you might have a chance to score!
“[Allardyce’s approach was about] breaking it down into simple things. I remember my first training session. The ball was just getting pinged out to me [and I was told] ‘Go on, take him on!’
“And there was nothing better than taking players on.”
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