Alas poor Carrick...WTF has happened?

Just hope he is given the full recovery before a return. Don't mind seeing him miss another game or two if it means he is fit for the rest of the season.
 
Wonder how he's going to be when he returns as it's been a while since he's been out for so long. If this injury means he's going to go back to his "slow starter" phase, expect a couple of months of under par Carrick.
 
kps88 said:
Wonder how he's going to be when he returns as it's been a while since he's been out for so long. If this injury means he's going to go back to his "slow starter" phase, expect a couple of months of under par Carrick.
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He hasn't been out that long to be fair, not long enough to have any influence on his fitness.
I reckon we will see his real importance when he returns. As the saying goes, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.
 
I wonder whether he will suit Jones as well as Cleverley has started to.

I really like our midfield have legs.
 
Getsme said:
He hasn't been out that long to be fair, not long enough to have any influence on his fitness.
I reckon we will see his real importance when he returns. As the saying goes, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.
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I'm not sure how much of it is down to fitness, but he usually only finds his form after playing constantly for a couple of months. I just hope this hasn't restarted the process.
 
kps88 said:
I'm not sure how much of it is down to fitness, but he usually only finds his form after playing constantly for a couple of months. I just hope this hasn't restarted the process.
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Let's hope.
 
Wow, it's really weird to see him have such an off game like today, even after the injury, I can't think of game where he looked worse in past 2-3 years. Excellent to have him back, mind you.
 
Amar__ said:
Wow, it's really weird to see him have such an off game like today, even after the injury, I can't think of game where he looked worse in past 2-3 years. Excellent to have him back, mind you.
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I don't know when was the last time he missed several weeks through injury. He's probably not even used to returning from it.
 
Amir said:
I don't know when was the last time he missed several weeks through injury. He's probably not even used to returning from it.
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Yeah, good point, we would probably play him in every game for 90 minutes in this period if he was fit.
 
Amar__ said:
Wow, it's really weird to see him have such an off game like today, even after the injury, I can't think of game where he looked worse in past 2-3 years. Excellent to have him back, mind you.
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He wasn't at his best but that's to be expected, this is from Carrick's official facebook:

Good result, ugly game but we got thru it..always good ones to win!
I was a touch rusty to say the least...
Be better for it tho..
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Looked "rusty" - reminded me of 09/10. Misplaced easy passes and was dispossessed easily on a couple of occasions. Good game for him though and I expect he'll start against Tottenham.
 
Ideally he would have had more of a gradual return with two or three sub appearances first, but our injury crisis means that we needed him pretty much straight away. I'm sure he will get fitter and sharper with more games. I look forward to him and Jones being paired together. I think it could be a good partnership given that Jones' stature and awareness in midfield is growing. With a solid and mobile partner next to him Carrick could have more time on the ball supplying those defence splitting passes forward, knowing that if we lose the ball there isn't a gaping hole behind him for the opposition to run into undeterred.
 
I know he was tired and not amazing... still i would bet money that second Tottenham goal doesn't happen if he is on the pitch :(.
 
We're very dependent on him being at his best, which is something we probably shouldn't take for granted.

Still, no matter how poor he plays he's a guaranteed starter. Imagine a world where we had midfielders who could actually compete for his place in the team...
 
Not at his best, but can't lay much blame on him. Rolls royce of a midfielder, but unfortunately, given his age, I don't think we can rely on him performing consistently for much longer. I think over the summer we may need to figure out his replacement too, and not just someone who can partner him.
 
I can't understand why he's being deployed so deep. It baffles me. Our gameplan seems to have been for Carrick to receive the ball off one of the CBs then release Evans to carry it forward whilst slotting into the back four himself. Then even when Evans returned into his natural position Carrick rarely seemed to stray very far into midfield he sat just in front of the back four, so much so that it was effectively a back five. The problem with this is that it underutilises Carrick's best qualities. He needs to be on the ball far more because he has those defense splitting passes in him and gets our attacks going. Having him playing so deep doesn't allow us to make use of his passing range and he's one of the best passers in the team. It also means that the midfield lacks presence and invites the opposition to run through it.

edit: Jones coming back could be quite beneficial to Carrick as hopefully Jones would be deeper allowing Carrick to dictate play and start off our attacks and be our primary passer. It would also add solidity as Jones is more likely to tackle or bully the ball from someone running at him or the back 4 through the middle of the park.
 
I don't usually like to comment on players returning from injury until they've had adequate chance to play themselves into form, but Carrick has been a shadow of his last season self. He's playing so deep. Isn't dictating games and isn't playing nearly as many of those forward passes into the feet of the forwards. It seems he had one of his typical slow starts to the season so wasn't really in the best form before he got injured (down to the injury?) and now he's having a slow return to form following the injury.

It may be confidence or simply needing a run of games to find form but what I've seen from Fletcher in his last few games is far better than anything Carrick has served up all season. Getting Carrick back to that form would be massive because atm Jones and Fletcher have played that role better than he has this season. Carrick, Jones and Fletcher could be three good midfield options if we can manage to get all three fit and in form at the same time.
 
LR7 said:
I don't usually like to comment on players returning from injury until they've had adequate chance to play themselves into form, but Carrick has been a shadow of his last season self. He's playing so deep. Isn't dictating games and isn't playing nearly as many of those forward passes into the feet of the forwards. It seems he had one of his typical slow starts to the season so wasn't really in the best form before he got injured (down to the injury?) and now he's having a slow return to form following the injury.

It may be confidence or simply needing a run of games to find form but what I've seen from Fletcher in his last few games is far better than anything Carrick has served up all season. Getting Carrick back to that form would be massive because atm Jones and Fletcher have played that role better than he has this season. Carrick, Jones and Fletcher could be three good midfield options if we can manage to get all three fit and in form at the same time.
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I going all out here most players bar De Gea and Rooney have been wank.. So this goes for more players than Carrick..
 
Carrick hasn't been at his best and doesn't look quite fully fit yet so hopefully will come with time. I'd like to see him carry the ball forward more, that might be something we see when he starts with fletcher as fletch will actually cover him. I think though some of the slowness on the ball came from a lack of options. He picked out some nice balls in central areas when they were on but so often you could just see there was such little movement. It didnt help as well that only januzaj and welbeck were the only players who could receive the ball to feet and turn and seemed to play quite far from each other.
 
arthurka said:
I going all out here most players bar De Gea and Rooney have been wank.. So this goes for more players than Carrick..
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Not really. Quite a few weren't pulling up any trees last season either but I voted for Carrick as our player of the season last season as he was outstanding so it's no surprise that a tail in his form is going to be more impactful than most. Especially as it comes in the area of the pitch where we are at our weakest.
 
MoneyMay said:
Very good distribution today!
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Was not expecting this bump to be positive. He was poor again last night and has been since the injury.

I don't agree with what seems to be the general view of his season so far though, I've no complaints about him pre-injury. Honestly believe this "slow start" gets thrown around every year regardless.
 
kps88 said:
Wonder how he's going to be when he returns as it's been a while since he's been out for so long. If this injury means he's going to go back to his "slow starter" phase, expect a couple of months of under par Carrick.
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As I expected really. He got injured at the worst possible time really and will take time to get back to his best.
 
He's been so poor this season that I'd be bringing in two new players as first choice for centre midfield. If he was a bit younger then I might give him the benefit of the doubt but I think he is now at an age where you'd reasonably expect his performance level to decline. I thought he was absolutely awful against Sunderland. Killed the tempo, taking far more touches than needed, forever giving Vidic the ball when the two of the them are stood next to each other.
 
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