Scholes should only be a last 15 minutes player, and only if the opposition is sitting back on the edge of their box, nobody can argue that he still has that eye for a pass and the ability to execute it but he just doesn't have the legs to support his midfield partner when it comes to the defensive side of things and that leaves the defense wide open time and time again. In my opinion, if Fergie wants to play Scholes for a full game he should do it as part of a midfield three... and make sure Giggs isn't one of the other two.
Ah the classic footballing litmus test. If you don't rate Carrick then you're clueless about football. A bit blunt probably, but almost always true.
That is precisely why there is negativity. He shouldn't start, but he frequently does. And when he does we frequently concede goals and struggle to dominate the midfield as he is not able to support his partner or shield the defence. Like you say, great to come off the bench but not to start. But that's not Scholes' fault, and I don't think he's being made a scapegoat any more than you could make Vidic a scapegoat against Swansea for not being fit after a year or so out of the game.
Scholes isn't being made a scapegoat for anything, the annoyance is with Fergie for picking him when he can't do it anymore. Sadly, he is NOT a great player anymore. Not even close. We're better when he's not in the team and I can only assume Fergusaon saw Newcastle as a soft touch and decided to give some others a break.
this is all slowly going away from the point of the article. yes it does make a difference if certain players play with others, as they play a different game but anyone that knows anything about football or watched enough football will see that Carrick is the spine in recent times. Our defence has been constantly changing with injuries and the only thing that has remained constant is Carrick. he has played the last 43/44 games for United. SAF picks him week in week out, so unless you guys think you know more about football than a manager with 20 years experience, and no not on football manager, then go die in a hole
Carrick is one of, if not the, most underrated players in the Premiership. He is incredibly intelligent and has in fact played more forward passes this season than anyone else in the PL. If you watch him regularly you will see he actually rarely plays passes sideways or backwards and will actually hold onto the ball to create space in order to play a pass forward. I would consider Carrick to have been (along with RVP) our standout player this season.
I wouldn't want to go overboard with the praise. But he definitely deserves his place in the first team. I cannot wait for Kagawa to get back though I am definitely waiting for the team to get into gear
When is Anderson coming back? Ideally for the Real Madrid game I'd be happy if the following formation was possible 4-2-3-1: De Gea Rafael-Evans-Vidic-Evra Carrick-Cleverly Kagawa-Anderson-Rooney. Van Persie.
Unless those forward passes are "slightly forward but mainly sideways" or "5 yards forward to someone who can actually pass" then I have to call bullshit on that. He doesn't "make space" either, when he has the ball its everyone else who has to run into space because Carrick can't take a man on nor deal well with pressure. Carrick is not a bad player, but he isn't great either. He screens the back four well and has great defensive positioning.... but he's not all that great at tackling. He generally keeps possession well but when he gives it away its almost always in a very dangerous place. The trouble with Carrick is he needs an attacking player like Cleverly/Anderson/Kagawa as an outlet to play alongside him when we're going forward and he's not good enough to stamp his authority defensively on the center like Keane could. He's a great player to have in a 433 or 451 but when there's only two in CM he just doesn't have enough in his locker. We have Cleverly, Anderson and Kagawa who can do a job creatively for us in midfield but we lack steel in the middle and some needs to be found.
Carrick, if I'm not mistaken, is not a defensive midfielder or destroyer like Keane or Mascherano or Khedira. He is a deep-lying midfielder, like Pirlo (ehm) and his positioning and passing range is quite impressive. He can't be expected to fly into tackles like De Jong or make frequent attacking runs like Lampard, so for what he is supposed to do, he has done that for United and in terms of injuries, boy, its hard to think when he was out for a substantial period. Thus, it seems Carrick seems to excel when paired with the opposite type, box-to-box midfielder like Cleverly and Ando, rather than the similar static passing type like Scholesy. And since Scholes offers relatively nothing in terms of defending, in comparison to Ando or Clevs, we see Carrick has extra work to do. Similarly, Scholes takes his role and he is expected to play the other role which he isn't familiar with.
United without wingers? That is our specific strength, we shouldn't try to wrestle with the likes of Alonso, Khedira and Ozil. We know what Kaka, from Milan, did to us, too, back in can't remember exactly, maybe 06-07. So nullify the midfield, use the flanks, pull out their trigger-happy defenders and create space for Roo and RVP to exploit, that's my formula to beating Madrid.
Before the 2011 CL final with Barca BBC did an analysis of Carrick/Iniesta/Xavi, I can't remember if it was just the Semi Finals or the entire Champions League that year, but Carrick played a higher percentage of his passes forward than either Xavi or Iniesta. They provided graphs to back that up. I'd find it for you but I'm on my phone and will be for the next couple of days. Carrick has never been a physical player. 95% of the defensive work is by just being in the right place and cutting out options by being well positioned. No one one should be expecting Carrick to fly around going into tackles, that's not his game and it never has been.
Just Google "Carrick passing" and look at image search. Here is a couple of fair sample's of his passing. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image You'll note he has a very high pass accuracy but the majority of his passes are very short and while a lot of them might technically be "forward" they are still more sideways than forward. He's capable of doing a good through ball or crossfield pass on occasion but the overwhelming majority of his passes are short or sideways. Not hating on the guy, he has his uses, but he's no playmaker. He's there to keep possession and pass it along.
I agree, Marcelo will destroy us down the left flank if we play too narrow, hopefully Valencia's form picks up as he would be perfect to counter Marcelo. Assuming all our players are performing to their usual level (and no one is in great or terrible form), I'm sure RVP, Rooney and Valencia will play against Madrid. We are playing away so our energy without the ball is going to be important, so there's only one other attacking position available if they play, either wide left if Rooney plays behind RVP, or in the hole if Rooney is on the left. Obviously Young is one contender for wide left, or Welbeck if SAF wants more physicality. I think Rooney will probably play wide left and the attacking midfield role will either go to Kagawa (if SAF is feeling adventurous) or Anderson/Cleverley if he's more conservative. Maybe he surprises us all and plays Powell there, and he gets a hattrick
Horrible feeling that unless we play anti football like the Chavs last season we will be at the end of a terrible scoreline. Thanks to CR
He's been quality for us this season, i'm a fan of Carrick's, i don't know why he keeps getting stick from ours fans when we lose a game.
Most clubs have scapegoat players, i don't think we have many fans left who think he's not good enough though.
