Alas poor Carrick...WTF has happened?

DevilRed said:
I worry about his mileage. He is no spring chicken but for the last few seasons he has played almost every single match. Surely fletcher will get a run out against Wigan.
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He doesn't exactly have a high energy game! Some players can play every game, Carrick is one of them, at 31 he is at the tail end of his prime, he will be OK.
 
Might get rested against WH. He's been very very good lately and a reason we won so many games. Really a crucial part
 
No chance of him starting against West Ham imo

Fletcher will finally come in for some minutes
 
I honestly think he's in the form of his life right now.

He's certainly earned a rest!
 
Flawless performance today. Won everything in midfield and simply dictated the pace of the game. He is back to his best again.
 
He's been playing well with the last four to six weeks, but I still believe he was in better form last season, certainly in the Autumn and Winter months.

He's integral to how we play when he's in this form, let's hope he keeps it up.
 
nahealai said:
He's been playing well with the last four to six weeks, but I still believe he was in better form last season, certainly in the Autumn and Winter months.

He's integral to how we play when he's in this form, let's hope he keeps it up.
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I think it's arguably taken him longer to hit his stride this season compared to last, however now that he has I'm confident he'll be one of our better players during the rest of the season.
 
He must be a really annoying player to play against. As an attacker you breeze through couple of players and then hit him like a roadblock out of no where again and again. I won't be surprised if he gets punched sometime soon.
 
It is staggering how much better we play when Carrick is in good form.
 
Siorac said:
It is staggering how much better we play when Carrick is in good form.
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It's also shocking how much easier it is to breeze through us when he's not there. After Carrick was subbed today Wigan suddenly came into it and while we continued to attack and scored, defensively we suddenly were all over the shop. Vital to keep Carrick fit.
 
I still find it staggering the amount of people that are willing to 'sell' him, in all of those who should we buy/sell threads that pop up every pre-season. He really has been such a criminally underrated player in his time here.
 
#07 said:
It's also shocking how much easier it is to breeze through us when he's not there. After Carrick was subbed today Wigan suddenly came into it and while we continued to attack and scored, defensively we suddenly were all over the shop. Vital to keep Carrick fit.
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We weren't all over the shop. Look who we put in his place. kagawa. A CAM. Wigan came into the game but we still handled it fairly well. Never really felt uncomfortable about the match.
 
He was a beast out there today. Wigan gave him the time and space he loves but he used it to perfection.
 
The combination of metronomic passing, the occasional beauty to release a forward player, and positioning that allows him to make interceptions, is what makes Carrick unique in the squad. When he's on form and has an effective partner he puts all those qualities together and basically does a complete midfield job. Quality player.
 
When Gary Neville was asked who the most underrated player in the league the first player that he thought of was Carrick. Just throwing that out there.
 
Wigan were awful to be fair...but yeah, another good performance.

No chance of him playing against West Ham, unless Fergie REALLY wants to win the FA Cup this year, for some reason.
 
still remember back in 2006 when i was hoping for us to sign michael ballack.

we ended up summer of 2006 by buying carrick and kuszczak, and sold van nistelrooy as well. chelsea signed shevchenko and ballack and my thought at that time was "we are fecked".

6 and a half years later i'm glad we actually got carrick. few ups and downs but he has been a very good player for us.
 
Siorac said:
It is staggering how much better we play when Carrick is in good form.
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He's a very good midfielder in the prime of his career. That in itself makes a difference to some of the players we use there. And it will always give a good platform for the attack and shielding to the back line. Sometimes it's that easy. Just like the transformation we've seen in the team when Keane left in 2005/06 and we found a solid pairing in O'Shea and Giggs, following by Carrick and Scholes.
 
Really enjoying his performances of late, keep it up Michael!
 
Bet there were cries up and down the country when Gary Neville named him in his team of the season last night

Top class player, love him!!
 
Great game from Carrick. Controlled things and stiffled nearly everything around him for the other team. Hopefully he gets a rest for the FA cup tie as he deserves it.
 
When he performs like this, he's simply essential in our team. We take it for granted when our moves from the back, end up as a goal. Much of the time Carrick has helped to win the ball and then delivered the passes for our attackers to feed off.

We can't allow him to burn out. Rest him when we can and allow the others to find their consistency too.
 
When he plays like this, the idea that he's 'limited' is laughable. He looks comfortable anywhere on the pitch, whether intercepting in front of the back four or one-touch passing on the edge of their box. Absolutely oozes class.

Wish he'd shoot more though, at least whilst he's in this form.
 
Currently having a debate with a few lads on Twitter about Carrick.

Why is it exactly that he's so criminally underrated amongst football fans beyond Old Trafford? He's absolutely class in my opinion, and he can't even get a game for England, who are shit in midfield.

The three lads who I've been chatting with are all football fans, one even watches our local team every week. However, I've seen words like "average" and "shite" thrown around to describe Carrick. At one point, one of the lads even claimed that Carrick wouldn't make the top 10 midfielders in the Premier League.

You couldn't make this shit up. He's statistically the second best midfielder in Europe during the calendar year of 2012. Why is he not considered as highly as he performs?
 
Becase 99% of people who don't rate him never watch him carefully, it's same with every defensive midfielder. I have friend who is big fan of barcelona and he says Busquets is shit, how is even possible to be dumb like that?
 
JmRssll555 said:
Currently having a debate with a few lads on Twitter about Carrick.

Why is it exactly that he's so criminally underrated amongst football fans beyond Old Trafford? He's absolutely class in my opinion, and he can't even get a game for England, who are shit in midfield.

The three lads who I've been chatting with are all football fans, one even watches our local team every week. However, I've seen words like "average" and "shite" thrown around to describe Carrick. At one point, one of the lads even claimed that Carrick wouldn't make the top 10 midfielders in the Premier League.

You couldn't make this shit up. He's statistically the second best midfielder in Europe during the calendar year of 2012. Why is he not considered as highly as he performs?
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Non-United fans don't watch United much. They get their sense of our players from the media. The media have to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and they also all tend to parrot each other, chinese-whisper style, so the simplest interpretation is always the one which survives. Carrick's merits as a footballer are not simple to explain, especially for the English media to an English public (PL football has long since moved on from its less technical, more physical past, but the media and a certain chunk of their readership have not. Ironically it is generally those who moan about English football and jizz over anything vaguely Spanish who are the most backwards in their understanding).

Also Carrick's typical up-down form over the season doesn't make for a neat, easily-digestible interpretation package to sell to Joe Bloggs who reads the Mirror. So your average journalist has to choose whether to always treat him as if he's the player he is right now (world class midfielder, top bracket in his specific role), or the shackled version of himself that we see at the start of most seasons. ABU appeals to more people than a pro-United approach, plus for the reasons above it's more difficult to explain the ways in which he is so brilliant than to just call him 'average', and occasionally generously slip in that he is an 'unsung hero'. So they mostly go for the latter.
 
JmRssll555 said:
You couldn't make this shit up. He's statistically the second best midfielder in Europe during the calendar year of 2012. Why is he not considered as highly as he performs?
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First of all you won't really see many of the studious fans who understand how we play saying this. They usually raise a minor concern about Carrick and get shouted at for being a hater and hating on him but most of the time when talking about the defensive side of his game they are raising genuine concerns.

Don't get me wrong I think when Carrick this season has played in the midfield role he has genuinely been more mobile and more clinical in the attacking side of his game, he's even starting to read and adapt with Cleverley but when it comes to doing his defensive duties such as closing play, tracking runners and making tackles/interceptions this season he has been extremely sub par. A lot of the looseness of the defence has come this season from the lack of protection he's offering the central defenders.

This gentle analysis can often be met with disdain by people who appreciate Carrick's game but for me, it is a genuine problem and has been offset by his ability in attack and Fergie's reluctance to play with a limited ball winning defensive midfielder in the central position. Which is fair enough - this season for what it is worth Carrick has been so solid and clinical in attack it hasn't really mattered.

Words like 'average', 'shite', 'useless' and the like can get lost very easily on people who can't see through the meat of the sandwich when it comes to football. They see him not making tackles and crunching players, not tracking runners and instantly think he's shite. They see him not taking on opponents and not using the ball at feet to open play but rather opting for a 'safe' pass and say he's frustrating.

Carrick can certainly be more adventurous but he's neither playing an all out attacking midfield role nor an all out limited defensive midfield role. That is where most of the hatred lies. It's hard to link and string attacks as well as protect and snuff out the opposition in defence. You have to be quick, strong and hungry to go in hard on your opposition (unbreakable) and combine that with razor sharp attacking passing and movement on and off the ball. You'd be hard pressed trying to list 5 midfielders in the world who are a 8.5+ in defensive midfield and a 8.5+ in attack. You can't have a huge mighty sword then go to battle wearing just underwear. Same as you can't wear a massive impenetrable suit of armor and fight with a letter opener.

I usually just put my 2c in with these 'types' and say 'he could do a little bit more in defense to help the back four but it would probably effect his attacking game' and leave it at that. If they keep harping on about how shite he is they are usually too far gone to try and convince that he is an important aspect of our midfield for whatever strengths and weaknesses that he brings to the table.
 
JmRssll555 said:
Currently having a debate with a few lads on Twitter about Carrick.

Why is it exactly that he's so criminally underrated amongst football fans beyond Old Trafford? He's absolutely class in my opinion, and he can't even get a game for England, who are shit in midfield.

The three lads who I've been chatting with are all football fans, one even watches our local team every week. However, I've seen words like "average" and "shite" thrown around to describe Carrick. At one point, one of the lads even claimed that Carrick wouldn't make the top 10 midfielders in the Premier League.

You couldn't make this shit up. He's statistically the second best midfielder in Europe during the calendar year of 2012. Why is he not considered as highly as he performs?
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Think he is criminally underrated as you put it by many inside Old Trafford, the comments and shouts I here from a large number of people are shocking and quite uneducated about football. I hear the exact same words 'average' 'shite' used by United fans. Have never understood it.
 
Widnes said:
Think he is criminally underrated as you put it by many inside Old Trafford, the comments and shouts I here from a large number of people are shocking and quite uneducated about football. I hear the exact same words 'average' 'shite' used by United fans. Have never understood it.
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Michael Carrick at times can be incredibly average.

When he's playing like he is now he is a magician. Someone said it above that he's the best player in his position playing the game,I might not go that far but he's in with a shout no doubt.

But when he decides to play within himself for no reason other than seemingly himself he offers little defensively and even less offensively.

Long may this form continue.
 
Probably doesn't help with Carrick that he's only ever had one properly class performance for England when he has been picked (that world cup debut one against Ecuador). He should've been picked more consistently, but he's not set the world alight for England when he has been picked on those few occasions.

He's been top class recently, though - the difference in his performances now as opposed to the start of the season has been remarkable. It is definitely true that he takes a while to get going, but I think this might be his best spell of form in some time. At first I was thinking since the second half of 10/11, but it's maybe even been since further back than that. His technique on the ball is at a different level currently to anything I remember seeing from him, and he's playing more of those lobbed passes from deep quite regularly again like he was doing during his second season here.
 
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