Alas poor Carrick...WTF has happened?

ghaliboy said:
:lol::lol::lol: I am sure I've made this direct quote to one of my mates.

Noods you could see Silva was dropping right onto him during the first half and at the start of the second. He'd drop onto him to receive a pass then knew he could go through/past him with ease.

I don't doubt he was brilliant going forward but with a little more mobility he really could have exceptional and shut down the City mf completely.
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He was outnumbered defensively. Cleverley seemed to be deliberately playing ahead of him to make sure he could always find one of either him or Rooney in space. I think that was a risk we took tactically to give ourselves a platform to play out on the break, and it was Carrick and Rooney's class on the ball, and Cleverley's movement that allowed us to do that. It could have backfired to be fair but it worked better and gave us a much better chance than whatever it was we did last year.

Silva does that all the time to try and draw players out of the game. What do you want Carrick to do about it? He couldn't risk making a challenge or trying to nip in ahead of him because Silva's far too clever and talented not to take advantage.

If you want to see a rubbish performance from someone playing in the role Carrick played today, watch the game again and pay attention to Gareth Barry. Rooney had the freedom of the part of the pitch Barry was supposed to be playing in...it was like Barry had a restraining order put on him before the game.
 
noodlehair said:
He was outnumbered defensively.
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But noods, that's been true of pretty much all the games he's been supposedly so shit in.

If you want to see a rubbish performance from someone playing in the role Carrick played today, watch the game again and pay attention to Gareth Barry. Rooney had the freedom of the part of the pitch Barry was supposed to be playing in...it was like Barry had a restraining order put on him before the game.
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True and :lol:
 
Plechazunga said:
But noods, that's been true of pretty much all the games he's been supposedly so shit in.
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Yeah, but he has been shit in most of them.

For example, the Chelsea game, where we played the exact same starting line up as today, and he looked off the pace and was the worst player on the pitch, and as a result Chelsea swarmed all over us for most of the game.

Compared to today where he looked sharp and composed and was probably the most vital player in the team tactically.

I'm chuffed with that game anyway. It could have gone either way but it was a proper United performance. I would have still been pretty pleased (although a bit gutted) if it'd ended 2-2.
 
See I think today the difference in the majority of players doing their jobs over the 90 mins had a bigger impact than Carrick playing better. He has picked up his performances but I think the way the team played also had a big affect.

Our game plan was to soak up pressure and hit on the counter, same with Chelsea, if you play with 2 wide wingers against teams with 2 narrow wingers you're likely to concede possession.

But the difference against City was that first in Young we had a winger who did his defensive and offensive duty excellently and Valencia who did alright, though he was similar against Chelsea. Rooney for me got a much better balance between not over doing it defensively and getting in alongside Carrick and Clev, which just allows the opposition d/m to push up, and not getting too far from RVP to leave him isolated.

Similarly for most the game not only did we defend well but we also stayed tight on Silva and Nasri for large periods of the game, with defenders tracking them as they tried to go short which stopped them from turning as much. Against Chelsea no one was stopping Hazard and Mata running towards our goal with the ball.

All these things for me combine. Like I said because we set up the way we do it's pretty unlikely that against good teams who play narrow we're gonna dominate the ball, it's just not feasible. What our midfield has to do is soak up the pressure and that requires both players, too often we don't have an appropriate partner in there for Carrick, today we did and he played well. But then also the attack needs to be dangerous on the counter and today we were. If we're not though, as has been the case most of the season then we look toothless and the blame usually gets focused on the midfielders when in reality it's a collective thing.
 
noodlehair said:
I'm chuffed with that game anyway. It could have gone either way but it was a proper United performance. I would have still been pretty pleased (although a bit gutted) if it'd ended 2-2.
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Not that this has anything to do with Michael Carrick (who I thought was pretty great, yey Michael Carrick), but I suddenly realised at 1-2 very late in the game that a even draw would be a very good result. That thought hadn't even crossed my mind since we took the lead, in fact possibly not since kick-off. It was a great comfort.
 
noodlehair said:
Silva does that all the time to try and draw players out of the game. What do you want Carrick to do about it? He couldn't risk making a challenge or trying to nip in ahead of him because Silva's far too clever and talented not to take advantage.
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Chop him? :devil: Silva would have thought twice about going near him. :lol:

If you want to see a rubbish performance from someone playing in the role Carrick played today, watch the game again and pay attention to Gareth Barry. Rooney had the freedom of the part of the pitch Barry was supposed to be playing in...it was like Barry had a restraining order put on him before the game.
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Well played :lol::lol::lol: Absolute gem. By the way why aren't you doing the round by round update? They were a class act mate.
 
I thought he played his role fairly well. For once it didn't look like we had a giant hole in the center so credit has to go to Carrick and Cleverley for that. They screened the back for well, particularly when you consider how good City's attacking players are on the ball. The only time they started to let us down was near the end when the match was getting stretched a lot and through balls started to get in behind our defenders.
 
ghaliboy said:
Well played :lol::lol::lol: Absolute gem. By the way why aren't you doing the round by round update? They were a class act mate.
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Having some semblence of a life has annoyingly decided to get in the way of having the time to do them...or rather to keep up with enough of the actual football to be able to do them. Cheers for the appreciation though!
 
Dargonk said:
I thought he played his role fairly well. For once it didn't look like we had a giant hole in the center so credit has to go to Carrick and Cleverley for that. They screened the back for well, particularly when you consider how good City's attacking players are on the ball. The only time they started to let us down was near the end when the match was getting stretched a lot and through balls started to get in behind our defenders.
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Actually those through balls were exploiting the space left by Evra and Rafael who continued to bomb forward.
 
Plato said:
Actually those through balls were exploiting the space left by Evra and Rafael who continued to bomb forward.
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There were balls coming through from the center of the pitch as well from memory. I put it down to a case of the game getting very stretched and as a result Carrick and Cleverley having to cover far more space than earlier in the match. Add that they would have been tiring its no surprise that more through balls were allowed to be played.
 
Those ones resulted from Silva staying high when we pushed up. He would just sit there waiting to receive the out ball and then try to quickly play in Tevez or Aguero.
 
It's perplexing that he can look so mediocre until the end of November (though he did well in the Chelsea game) and then bang, comes December 1st and Carrick is awesome again. Baffling!

Him and Cleverley or Ando playing together make our midfield look so much better. There were hardly any gaping holes to exploit like in some of the other games this season. Also, the defense looks much more assured with a solid midfield shielding them.

Please more of the same Michael...
 
noodlehair said:
He was outnumbered defensively. Cleverley seemed to be deliberately playing ahead of him to make sure he could always find one of either him or Rooney in space. I think that was a risk we took tactically to give ourselves a platform to play out on the break, and it was Carrick and Rooney's class on the ball, and Cleverley's movement that allowed us to do that. It could have backfired to be fair but it worked better and gave us a much better chance than whatever it was we did last year.

Silva does that all the time to try and draw players out of the game. What do you want Carrick to do about it? He couldn't risk making a challenge or trying to nip in ahead of him because Silva's far too clever and talented not to take advantage.

If you want to see a rubbish performance from someone playing in the role Carrick played today, watch the game again and pay attention to Gareth Barry. Rooney had the freedom of the part of the pitch Barry was supposed to be playing in...it was like Barry had a restraining order put on him before the game.
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:lol:
 
whoscored.com:

Michael Carrick: Has played more forward passes (456) than any other player in the Premier League this season (Mertesacker 403, Toure 398)
 
Forevergiggs said:
It's perplexing that he can look so mediocre until the end of November (though he did well in the Chelsea game) and then bang, comes December 1st and Carrick is awesome again. Baffling!

Him and Cleverley or Ando playing together make our midfield look so much better. There were hardly any gaping holes to exploit like in some of the other games this season. Also, the defense looks much more assured with a solid midfield shielding them.
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You've pretty much answered your own question there.
 
"@WhoScored: Michael Carrick: Has played more forward passes (456) than any other player in the Premier League this season (Mertesacker 403, Toure 398)"

So, what now? It was one of the things people complained about him..
 
Anyone who thinks he plays it sideways mostly is a moron anyway, a high percentage of his passes are from the the centre circle or just behind it, along the floor and bypassing the opposition midfield, into the feet of one our attackers.
 
Yeah. Hope it was to rest him. Anderson is already out. Cant have Carrick out as well.
 
Probably just being rested; that being said, he is probably just about world class. You can see how infinitely important he is to our team. His passing is brilliant, he cuts out passes and holds up play. He seems to click well with Cleverley too.
 
The first half was Carrick at his best, showing for the ball and making the right decisions with almost every pass. It's scary to think what happens if he gets injured really, it's insane that we don't have any cover for him.
 
I honestly think he's our most important player. If he gets injured, we're going to be in huge trouble unless we buy someone.
 
I hope the fecker isnt injured. Looks to have found his level now since the City game. Good game.
 
The difference in the second half was very very easy to see. Between him and Cleverley, the ball was safe and there was little to no pressure on the defence, and all the backline had to do was to clean up. And towards the end it was quite shaky.

I know, 3 points in the bag etc...
 
God I hope he stays fit all season.

We're seriously fecked if gets injured.
 
DevilRed said:
Its not an injury is it? Maybe just giving him a mini break before the busy Christmas period?
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If he was taken off at half time when we don't play again for 8 days then..jesus. Of course the alternative is pretty terrifying, so perhaps we'd best hope it was just a ridiculous decision.
 
We desperately need someone who can fill in for Carrick. Maybe Jones? But the second half showed how badly we lack backup for him.
 
Chabon said:
If he was taken off at half time when we don't play again for 8 days then..jesus. Of course the alternative is pretty terrifying, so perhaps we'd best hope it was just a ridiculous decision.
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I hope its Fergie finally realising Carrick plays too many fecking games and we need to give him a break whenever possible.
 
Rossa said:
Indeed - you are so right, so the Carrick bashing should just cease once and for all. Unfortunately, he is underrated by most fans.
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He's not. He's just a freakin slow starter for many years and this should have been addressed imo. It showed again this season.

When on form he can be brilliant, no one denied that but he had some shockers this and the last seasons at the early stages of a season due to that fact.
 
I don't think it's a coincidence that Carrick appears better around this time as over the last few years we've looked better as a team at around this time. Like I've said before Carrick gets stick when the team isn't performing because people want him to do too much imo. Now we have Rooney playing in the hole well, Young playing well and offering both width and an option coming inside. He also has a proper partner playing in form. These all combine. Carrick hasn't been at his best this season, no one has bar probably Rafael, but a lot of the perceived problems for me have been the lack of form/movement in the front four who have clicked to life in the last few games.
 
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