This season has seen a massive turn around in the critical evaluation of Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick. He went from being a prime candidate for scapegoating to United’s top midfield performer. Whilst the change in his form was duly noted, I’m not sure he continues to receive the same respect from Manchester United fans and he sure doesn’t get his due from neutrals.
Ever since Paul Scholes ended his retirement and came back to Old Trafford all the credit for United’s decent midfield performances have gone to him. Whilst he has been impressive (and has certainly put in a number of age-defying, eye-catching performances) let’s not forget Carrick’s role in carving out some important results for Manchester United. Besides, to claim that Scoles has been United’s best midfielder this season is just patently untrue.
I will say this however: Carrick has thrived playing alongside Scholes. At 30-years-old he’s still in the peak stages of his career and his game suffers when he has to play wet nurse for some of United’s less experienced midfield talents.
It’s clear that he’s loving playing alongside a player who isn’t going to make naive mistakes, won’t give the ball away and can stand up for himself. What’s more, the fact that he doesn’t shoulder the entirety of Manchester United’s creative burden has freed up his game a little and this season he has played as if a weight were released from his shoulders.
I strikes me that fans only really notice how important he is when he’s not in the team. Sure he turns up with assists and the occasional goal, but it’s when he’s not playing that you release how little cover United’s defence has and how their possession of the ball decreases. This is perhaps why he’s not getting a real look-in within the England setup.
He’s clearly going to be a big part of Manchester United’s future over the next couple of seasons. Assuming that Paul Scholes wont stay on for another season, that means that United will have to invest in a partner for Carrick who will be around for the next 3-4 years. Tom Cleverley is definitely one for the future, whilst concerns still surround Anderson (who is an injury magnet) and Darren Fletcher (get well soon!).
So this is clearly an area that Sir Alex Ferguson will need to invest in this summer. There are a whole host of candidates out there: Wesley Sneijder, Christian Eriksen and Mario Goetze. With a wealth of midfield talent out there, if United are willing to spend, they will end up with a quality signing. Whoever it is, let’s hope that Michael Carrick continues to perform and leads this club on to more success.
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Carrick has improved a lot and has convinced many of us who had earlier started doubting his quality. I hope he continues improving. GGMU.
Carrick is very solid but he’s not the future. A world class, first choice midfield that could potentially have us challenging Barcelona and Madrid won’t contain Carrick or Fletcher. They are good, reliable squad plyers, no more.
Any new signing should be thought of as partnering either Cleverly, Anderson or Pogba in the long term, if one of them turns out to be good enough.
Couldn’t agree more Chris. Carrick is a good but unfortunately not great player, people seem to forget that he didn’t actually start playing until November because of injuries and a lack of form so to tout him as one of our best players this season is wide of the mark IMO. Carrick is now turning in performances we should expect of any player at United so to celebrate what he is doing just shows how far our standards have slipped and how accepting of the average we have become.
FACT: United win more games without Carrick than they do with. He is constantly outclassed in Europe. He was the reason we lost a three goal cushion against Bayern two years ago. He is great at square balls but lacks vision, can’t tackle and is slower than my gran. He is a squad player at best but id rather see him out the door. Research your facts before writing such nonsense in future…
Carrick is an effective yet simple player, He controls the tempo of the match and maintains pressure when needed. Cleverly in my opinion is way to overrated, had a good couple of performances against lower strength opposition but when it comes down to it i don’t think he’ll cut it. Pogba I don’t see ever really becoming much at United – seems to me that he thinks hes bigger than the club. With Carrick being 30, Scholes being 37, Fletcher injured and Anderson being awful and injury prone, we need to invest in 2-3 midfielders – Maybe a defensive minded but ball playing midfield e.g. Javi Martinez of Athletic or Gokan Inler from Napoli – followed by a creative force of Hamsik from Napoli, Goetze from Dortmund or either Steven De Jong or Christian Eriksen of Ajax. We need to be looking for 2 – 3 midfielders for next season, not hoping that one of our youth happens to be amazing next year.