PLAYING SAFELY IS NOT A TALL ORDER

ANDY CARROLL, we are told, is often penalised by referees just for being big. He uses his arms for leverage when jumping, goes the argument — everyone does it, but it looks worse from him because he’s so tall. How to explain, then, the relatively unblemished career of Peter Crouch? He is bigger than Carroll, rarely plays the man, and genuinely seems to get a raw deal from referees. If Carroll (above) jumped as fairly as Crouch, there would be no issue. It’s not that he’s tall; it’s that he’s reckless.