If I put my footy head on Allen in place of Carrick for you lot would be brilliant, take a look at his tackling stats. We all know he can pass and as you say he he does tend to keep it simple but he's a much better player than Carrick in every aspect of his game. He even wins a fair amount in the air.
I never really got why Carrick gets so much stick, he was a key part of the team that won 4 titles in 5 year and it was no coincidence that our run of good form last season came when Carrick returned to the starting lineup.
Nah good players are good players whoever they play for. Everyone has there favourites of course but you cant deny quality. You can point and laugh though.
The reason we will never agree is that we watch our own players very closely and see the value in what they do because week in week out we scrutinise their game. Rusholme said earlier that he doesnt rate Lucas, any Liverpool fan would be amazed at that, but Rusholme doesnt watch Lucas every week so he is only aware of him clattering players on MOTD and doesn't really know him. Same with Allen, most are looking at him knocking simple balls but don't see the intelligence and work rate. It's the same with us lot we see Carrick as a lumbering idiot who cant get anything right but there must be a reason he's there. As much as there is with most fans a begruding respect we know very little about each others teams and understand the mentallity even less. So I'll leave it at that as we will never agree. Gerrard has always been better than Scholes.
Allen is a decent enough player but the question is, would he improve us and at the moment he wouldn't as he's not the type we need. He could maybe eventually replace Carrick though. We actually need a Gerrard in his prime. Not the current one though. I think you're jumping the gun with your Sahin assessment. I think he's scored once so it's goal, not goals and has he really been bossing your midfield? Really? Like I said, I'm reserving judgement for now. I also don't buy into this Lucas is amazing assessment as I've just never seen it. He must do it in the games I don't watch!
I think refs feel the huge pressure of the games at OT and the inevitable backlash from Fergie so are bound to be more nervous and are therefore bound to make mistakes or to bottle a call they may make at another ground.
Personally I think Allen and Sahin would both replace Carrick right now. They're not better players, but they have much more energy and that would be exactly what we need right now. For me a CM partnership of Carrick and Scholes has been a potential liability for a while now - I'd much rather have Allen / Sahin and Scholes. Tho' if Fletcher gets back to full fitness it would be Fletcher and Scholes all the way for me, at least until we replace Scholes with Cleverley / Powell / A. N. Other. Lucas is a good player, but I'm not convinced he'd be right for our midfield. We don't really need an ultra defensive Makalele type player to shield the defence, as we'd have to sacrifice one of our attacking players to fit him in and would thus completely screw up our fast attacking play.
I do watch more than match of the day though. Never once seen him have one of these top games he is alleged to always have so I ain't buying it.
Been a good chat lads but I'm off home now, I think we've got to the bones of it, our midfield is better and your all manc scum. Have a good one. luv out.