Watched him on Sky today and he doesn't seem to do anything for you, seems to have no passion and if I got a deal at United with that lack of quality, I'd be ****ing grateful.
Often there are times when criticism of Carrick is valid, for example when his passing is not accurate, his positioning is suspect or when he makes an almighty **** up. However brainless criticisms like that are not right at all. He is a deep lying playmaker, running around all the time is a sign of poor quality in that role. Look at Pirlo or Alonso, do they chase around the pitch when they play football? Pretty much every time I hear someone shows a 'lack of passion' the person saying it does not understand football that well, only the blinkered British stereotype of it, where everything can be solved by running around more and talented players are looked down upon for being 'show offs' and not demonstrating enough effort. For this I blame Alan Shearer, as someone who was such a good player and knew top level football so well he is too eager to talk in cliches.
Carrick's not really a deep lying playmaker, he's more of a holding player. He should be sitting in front of the defence, providing a solid base for which to build attacks, spreading the play and supporting more creative attack minded midfielders. He played really well for his first few seasons cos Scholesy was still playing a dynamic role back then, so he could distribute the ball between Giggs, Scholes and Ronaldo. But now Scholesy's moving deeper Carrick finds himself being forced into a role he can't really play. I think Carrick could rediscover much of his form if we signed a top quality Scholes replacement, someone like Sneijder, who could provide attacking thrust and let Carrick sit back and do what he does best. Same with Fletcher - both Carrick and Fletcher have suffered as Scholesy has declined imo.
And what play did he make? NIL. Also you say Pirlo and Alonso don't chase around, they are two of the best passers of world football... way out of Carrick's league. And if I wanted criticism, I would say the first goal was Carrick's fault for backing off (as well as a great run from Suarez)
I have to disagree, we bought him from Spurs as a deep lying playmaker. Re-watch the Roman 7-1 game, that opitomises what he was signed for. He's lost confidence immensely for some unknown reason, and now essentially cannot be trusted with an important/ ball playing role. Carrick without his passing is average. He's definately not a "solid base" at all.
I disagree - I don't think he's every been a proper playmaker, he's nowhere near good enough at picking killer passes and creating goals. The Roma game is a perfect example - we scored 7 goals and I don't think he got a single assist. What he gave us was efficient distribution to the wings and to Scholes, with Scholes being the true playmaker whilst Carrick covered him. The problem over the last two seasons is that Scholesy has been dropping deeper and thus Carrick has been trying to be a true playmaker, but his creativity and reading of the game just isn't good enough. He can still make decent passes, but he's never been able to make the really good visionary / defence splitting passes that we have been missing this season. If we could sign a proper attacking midfielder like Sneijder, or a proper playmaker like Alonso, I think we could get something out of Carrick again.
Whether he is a proper playmaker or not is irrelevant, but he is definately not a holding midfielder. He scored two against Roma too. Alonso didn't get all the assists, but he often assisted the assist. Similar to Modric. Interestingly, the line up that night was: Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Heinze, O'Shea (Evra 52), Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick (Richardson 73), Giggs (Solskjaer 61), Rooney, Smith. Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Dong, Cathcart, Eagles. Interestingly also, 3-1 against Arsenal, in the CL, Carrick played ahead of Scholes: Man Utd: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (Rafael Da Silva 65), Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson (Giggs 63), Park, Ronaldo, Rooney (Berbatov 66). Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Evans, Scholes, Tevez. Fergie had faith in Carrick to spread the ball about in those days. Carrick was used as a deep lying playmaker alongside fletcher as the holder. He lost confidence along the way somewhere though, and has no passing ability what-so-ever. The fact is Fergie used to trust him in the big games but no longer can, his touch and passing has gone to pot. Interestingly, he rarely calls for the ball anymore, as if he's scared to have it and make a mistake with it. Watch this and tell me if this is the same Carrick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ7R6mJtOlg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dfgl_YaS90 and this, these types of assists are nowhere to be found anymore. The quote at the end sum up what Carrick was all about, back then..... This one too, passing is what he was all about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6jqE4rMejw&feature=related
I think we're mainly arguing about semantics here. When I talk about a holding midfielder I don't necessarily mean a tackler like Fletcher or Hargreaves. I mean a player who plays in front of the defence with a strong amount of positional discipline and is responsible for bridging the gap between the defence and attack once the ball in won in defence. That's Carrick's best role imo, and where he excelled back in his first few seasons when he had attacking outputs like Scholes, Ronaldo, Giggs and sometimes even Rooney playing on the flanks. But now Scholesy is playing in that role more and Carrick has a less defined role so he struggles cos his anticipation and positional play aren't good enough. Instead of having the time to receive a pass and pick one out, he's in the thick of things and his touch lets him down under pressure. Also, without Scholes finding good positions ahead of him in the midfield, he doesn't have that option available. In fact, that lack of a good quality attacking midfielder is what our midfield has been struggling with all season, particularly with Anderson struggling so much and with so few games after his injury. Whenever Carrick or Fletcher get the ball in midfield, there's never anyone ahead of them in the position that Scholes used to play in. That's the role we really need to fill in summer - with no one in that position it's far too easy for the oppositon midfielders to press forward and harry us off the ball.
Those videos sum up my argument almost completely. If you look at almost every time Carrick has the ball in the first one, there is another Utd player ahead of him in midfield (often Scholes or Ronaldo) drawing opponents out of position and making space for Carrick. He only ever has to deal with one opposing player at once. Compare that to Liverpool today, where Scholes was almost always behind him and he was being closed down by Lucas, Gerrard and Meireles almost all the time. If he gets time and space Carrick still has a good touch and good passing, but there's no one to create that space for him now. Likewise for the Ecuador one - he has Lampard and Gerrard ahead of him dragging the Ecuador midfield all over the place.
Yeah, a deeplying playmaker, similar to how Alonso had Gerrard and Garcia making runs and space. Similar to how Nani and Rooney continue to make space. What about the Roma game, and the Arsenal one? Fergie trusted him and Fletcher back then. If anything they should be more accomplished, and should be more ready for those sorts of games today. Those videos show Carrick carrying the ball, and splitting teams from the halfway line. He does that no more. The composure shown in that England clip is nowhere to be found. He's gone downhill, it's not down to scholes, but him, he's lost composure on the ball, and confidence in his ability.
Still not really a deep lying playmaker - a true playmaker has a freer role and moves around more getting into the right positions to dictate the tempo. Carrick has never done that. He's still a holding midfielder to me. For the Roma game, their midfield and defence just fell apart - there were holes everywhere! Heck even Alan Smith managed to score. And for the Arsenal game we were playing counter attacking football with Rooney, Ronaldo and Park on top for - none of our three goals went through midfield. He's not playing as well as he used to, but I still maintain that's cos he's being asked to play a more challenging role that he's not suited to. IMO that's why his confidence is suffering. With a dynamic attacking midfielder in front of him, and two threatening wingers (Park, Nani or Valencia) I think he'd get his confidence back.
I think Carrick is extremely good at passing, but he is instructed to play a more low key role in matches. No 40 yard cross-field passes or spectacular assists for him.
`Man United were robbed blind on Carrick.Its widely reported that the last time Carrick made a forward pass,He was in West Hams youth team.He wasn't worth the ã2.75 million Spurs spent on him and definitely was never worth what United spent on him.
