Alas poor Carrick...WTF has happened?

Was poor but unsurprising as it feels like he's played in every one of our games. Midfield weakness has really begun to show this last month or so.
 
He was good in the first half... very good in fact. He just tired badly in the second, which isn't suprising considering he's played 3 full games of football in 7 days.
 
Tired in the second half, which is entirely understandable. It did not help when he basically had to do much of the defensive midfield work by himself once Jones got moved RB.
 
Felt sorry for the guy. There was one time in the second half when he was being hunted by Chelsea shirts on the inside right hand touchline and he managed to turn away from them into space and he was looking for someone, anyone to come short to take responsibility of the ball to give him some kind of option...nothing.
 
Thought Carrick was one of the few players that looked like he gave a feck today. Got over run due to a lack of help and a superior Chav midfield. Not Carricks fault at all.
 
Thought he was class as usual. Along with welbeck our best player by far
 
He ran the first half without a doubt. Was outnumbered in the second with Hernandez and RVP both trying to get in behind despite literally no one looking for that ball.

He might be our most consistent player of the season, but he's human. He needs a consistent partner and he needs an understudy. He has neither.
 
I thought he played well today. First half he controlled things fairly well. In the second half his partner seemed to go missing all together as we pushed for a goal. It left him totally exposed every time Chelsea got on the ball and they could pass/run around him as they countered fairly easily. Then when we got the ball, our attacking players all seemed to want to play to far up the field, leaving Carrick and the defenders largely knocking the ball around until they were forced to play it long.

I'd really like to see another disciplined midfielder join us in the summer to play next to carrick or cover for him when we rest him. Cleverley/Anderson can do a job against some teams, but in other case we need a different type of option.
 
Freak said:
We really need a backup for him. I'm just afraid all these games played this season would cause him to have some sort of a burnout next season. Hopefully by then we'd get a good backup.
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He needs both backup and a midfield partner, unfortunately.
 
I still don't like the way opposition teams get such freedom to just push inside. They know with Evra not tucked in and up field that they can get free space just coming into Carricks zone. Last night it was almost like a forward base of operations for the counter.

Mata just pushed into the space with two other players and stopped played a quick one two and then turned and they were away again on the counter. Even if Carrick or someone does snuff it out nearly the whole attack has to track some way back which allows the defense to push up on them and close the space in which we use to keep the enforced pressure and chance creation.

A proper out and out ball winner in these situations to bring on would be ideal. For all the leadership and experience Carrick has there is no defending things like this without a formation reshuffle.
 
Part of the problem on Sunday was he looked fecked after the first half. He basically just vacated the space and tried to stay goalside, or was chasing shadows

He does tend to push up the field and press the space more when his midfield partner allows him too. He doesn't like being caught ahead of the play or turned by the man on the ball though so he'll never take that responsability on himself.

So yeah, basically we need to sort out what's going on around him, because too often this season he's basically been carrying the midfield, what with our wingers being so woeful, and that doesn't really suit his style.

He should also be on the Player of the Year shortlist for me. He's been the best player for the team who are running away with the league. Suarez or Bale will probably win it but he deserves the recognition of at least being in contention.
 
Ish84045 said:
If he's not then its literally a fecking disgrace. Que Gerrard, Barry or Scotty Parker being named ahead of him now. :lol:
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He won't be though. If it is Gerrard/Barry or Scott Parker then yes ok it is a disgrace. But he just isn't "that" type of player that people go "OOOOOH team of the season right there!" I am sure he has come to terms with it.

Also, escaping a little critisism? I thought he was poor tonight in the 70 or so minutes I watched. 4 or 5 times he let players get in and take the ball from him or outmuscle him.

He looks knackered to feck though. Please direct me to the petition for United to sign an out and out ball winner to replace Fletch next season.
 
Carrick was OK, don't think he was quite 'poor'. But maybe by the standards he's affiliated himself to this season, he was. He was essentially in a midfield alone, 'cos feck knows where Giggs was.
 
I thought he was exceptional, can't remember him giving the ball away once!!
 
Carrick was very good yesterday. Won the ball on numerous occasions and outmuscled several players. His passing was also good, but you could see hints of frustration creeping in as he found it hard to find players to pass to at times.

Jones was our MotM, but Carrick was good also, as was Evra, I think - showed urgency, incepted the ball several times and displayed a will to win.
 
Carrick pretty much had to do all the work in midfield alone yesterday which is never a good thing.

I really pity the man sometimes everything in the center of the pitch falls on his shoulders most of the time, to a lesser regard when he plays with alongside Cleverly, Anderson and Jones and to a major part playing with Giggs.

One more CM with his quality would solve most of our problems in that area.
 
He was playing alongside a player who seemed to have been possessed by an 18 year old player. Unfortunately the legs were still those of a 39 year old.
 
Its becoming a joke to be honest...we can't rely on Carrick to run the midfield alone for the rest of time...buy him a fecking adequate partner.

I personally have to say once I saw Giggs in CM...I knew what would occur. As most would agree, he's performed well on the wing, but has flopped in big games in CM (Chelsea 2011 is 2 years ago...you can't bring that up).

For a one man man show, Carrick comes out with his head held high for me. Needed Rio to be sharper behind him and Rooney to be more incisive in front as well as some legs next to him.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ed-improve-Champions-League--NEIL-ASHTON.html

Someone just sent this to me; if you don't want to give extra views to the Daily Mail (which I understand), here's the part that prompted me to post here.

Danny Welbeck had claimed Michael Carrick, who has made 28 starts in the Premier League, has been ‘putting on exhibition shows’ from the centre of midfield.
If that really was the case then Carrick would have far more influence on the team - and would have broken his goalscoring duck in the league by now.
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Am I the only one who could scream when reading something like this? Every now and again we still hear people criticising Carrick for his lack of goals. It's so ignorant that it makes me want to kill someone.

Why the hell does nobody ever bitch and moan about Xabi Alonso's lack of goals or Busquets' "barren spells"? Xabi Alonso, Javi Martinez, Sergio Busquets: all of them are seen as world-class midfielders, part of that supposedly unbeatable Spain team and they have three goals between them this season. Yet you can't hear people putting them down because they aren't scoring goals.

Next week's edition: why does Nemanja Vidic provide so few goals? His lack of assists indicates he might not be the world-class defender we thought he was. Stay tuned.
 
Some people, and england seems to have plenty of them, do not understand football. They understand a goal, a crunching tackle or a great save, but absolutely nothing that is not clearly above ground.
 
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