He has an awful habit of trying these balls into feet that are so obviously never on and the player he's trying to pass to was never looking for.
Alas poor Carrick...WTF has happened?
- Thread starter Carl
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Room for improvement, yeah, but we'd be in more trouble if it was the other way round.
Been excellent defensively, you just wonder how good he'd be alongside a different partner with a similar passing range.
When Carrick plays well we play well. He is the key to bringing our front four into the game.
Seems unlikely now that we'll see Carrick return to his form of last year. Cleverley was a lot better than him today I thought and he wasn't anything special.
So many crucial interceptions and his passing improved in the second half. He's coming into it slowly but it's to no effect if those in front of him can't combine and make things happen.
Still thought his passing was wank, but defensively he was what we needed with Cleverley. Annoying these two couldn't play like this in the other matches where we needed a solid defensive CM partnership..
Some lovely passing from Carrick today. He and Fellaini have looked good.
Easy for him today as Palace have just been sitting back. Needs to get forward at the opportune time to provide another goal threat. Palace are too comfortable just camping in their own half.
Wouldn't surprise me if he reached 100+ passes before the end of the game. It really has been easy for him. And with Mata and Rooney deeper, he's been helped a lot.
Yeah, already on 74, wow.
Slows us down a lot
A very easy game for him. He completed 135 out of 143 passes. Building some good form now.
Solid performance but sometimes you just want him to be a bit more aggressive and run with the ball. Its all well and good to complete passes and retain possession but when teams clearly sit back to frustrate us, he needs to do more! Other than that a typical solid Carrick performance. No fault at all.
Did his job. He's not going to break through tackles and open space himself so he's done about as well as he could. Good confidence booster hopefully and he'll be important in the CL
The old Carrick is back (hopefully). Very good performance from him tonight.
He needs to release the ball faster.
if he can get back to his form of last season then we are going for a strong finish now.
Magnificent performance. The numbers speak for themselves. I know people are more interested in discussing negatives than positives but it's a little depressing that such an impressive effort gets so few comments and the thread is dead and gone a couple of hours after the final whistle.
I would argue that a lot of our woes this season can be attributed to the large number of games in which Carrick was carrying an injury, out injured, or gradually getting back to speed again on his return. If he can stay fit now and build up some fitness and momentum we will be a much, much stronger side in the second half of this season.
I would argue that a lot of our woes this season can be attributed to the large number of games in which Carrick was carrying an injury, out injured, or gradually getting back to speed again on his return. If he can stay fit now and build up some fitness and momentum we will be a much, much stronger side in the second half of this season.
He's very, very important to the team as he's the one midfielder that gives us control in matches.
Magnificent? Kroos against Arsenal was magnificent. It was a welcome return to form for Carrick but let's not go overboard...
He completed more passes then all 5 of Crystal Palace's midfielders (Ince, Jedinak, Ledley, Puncheon, Bolasie) put together...
Kroos was playing with a man advantage against a team hemmed in their own box, yet Carrick completed a similar number of passes.
It needed a goal or assist to be right up there with the very best midfield performance but it was very very good.
Yeah but the occasions were completely different. Our game was effectively meaningless. Kroos also displayed a far superior range of passing. It was the sort of performance Carrick regularly produced last season.
To be honest, I think the performance from Kroos was the better of the two.
I still think Carrick's display was absolutely top drawer.
I still think Carrick's display was absolutely top drawer.
Us, we aren't playing for anything right now except to try and build confidence for our Champions League games. Hopefully that'll see us play with a bit more freedom in the league anyway. I think their were finally some encouraging signs on the weekend.
It doesnt matter who it was against, Carrick has been gradually building up his form in the last two or three league games and that's all that matters. Its positive so there's no need to shit on it.
After September he struggled...then got injured and now he's playing well.
I remember people discussing how he's finished and because of his age (what?) He has no more use. When he gets the rhythm he's outstanding. Short memories, form and class are different etc.
After September he struggled...then got injured and now he's playing well.
I remember people discussing how he's finished and because of his age (what?) He has no more use. When he gets the rhythm he's outstanding. Short memories, form and class are different etc.
This game was anything but meaningless. It was vital for Moyes and the team (all under a lot of pressure at the moment) that we won.
There is no need to compare Kroos' performance to Carrick's.
He was magnificent against palace. This was exactly the kind of performance he kept producing week in week out last year. I think the fact that we had so many players dropping deep and centrally helped his game. Rooney, Mata, RvP kept on coming to the midfield to help him out. This is what I wanted to see since the beginning of the season. Hope it becomes a regular tactic now onwards. He simply cannot control the midfield single handed. Moyes somehow needs to lessen the burden on him to make him pull off some of those ridiculous passes that we saw last year.
He was magnificent against palace. This was exactly the kind of performance he kept producing week in week out last year. I think the fact that we had so many players dropping deep and centrally helped his game. Rooney, Mata, RvP kept on coming to the midfield to help him out. This is what I wanted to see since the beginning of the season. Hope it becomes a regular tactic now onwards. He simply cannot control the midfield single handed. Moyes somehow needs to lessen the burden on him to make him pull off some of those ridiculous passes that we saw last year.
Good performance from him but it's EXPECTED from a player with his quality. I never get too carried away with games against the small teams. What I want to see now is him pick up some form going towards the end of the season.
Carrick would be more influential in attack (like Kroos), if he was given the license to go forward a lot. But with Mata, Rooney, and Janujaz (and also Fellaini) up there, his main purpose is to give the platform to those players.
Most of Carrick's good matches, this season, have come when we have dominated possession, allowing for Carrick to control the game and distribute the ball without too much pressure on him. It seems to me that he's slower and less energetic than he was last season, which is possibly why we've been pretty leaky in midfield even with him. His defensive positioning hasn't been as good as before for the majority of this season, and he's always failed to recover to this defensive positions once we lost the ball.
Against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, he had everything set up well for him. Crystal Palace mostly punted long balls towards Ferdinand and Vidic and mostly relied on set pieces for their attacking threat. Plus, whenever they didn't have the ball, they sat back deep into their half. This allowed for Carrick to have the time and space to dictate the game and distribute the football like he always would.
At this age, Carrick's going to get worse, defensively, as he won't have the energy, anymore, to cover as much ground as he used to. Plus, his defensive positioning has worsened, this season, and I feel as if it may worsen as he grows older. He'll definitely be ideal against defensive opponents with a weak attacking setup; otherwise, we'll need him replaced with a more mobile and energetic central midfielder.
Against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, he had everything set up well for him. Crystal Palace mostly punted long balls towards Ferdinand and Vidic and mostly relied on set pieces for their attacking threat. Plus, whenever they didn't have the ball, they sat back deep into their half. This allowed for Carrick to have the time and space to dictate the game and distribute the football like he always would.
At this age, Carrick's going to get worse, defensively, as he won't have the energy, anymore, to cover as much ground as he used to. Plus, his defensive positioning has worsened, this season, and I feel as if it may worsen as he grows older. He'll definitely be ideal against defensive opponents with a weak attacking setup; otherwise, we'll need him replaced with a more mobile and energetic central midfielder.
Or you could twist it round and say when he's played well, we've dominated possession.
I'd agree with this, but I doubt he'll ever reach the levels he has reached in his past seasons. It seems as if his legs can't allow him to reach those levels, anymore. Too often has Carrick been lackadaisical, defensively, this season. On the ball, he's still good and still a good passer; however, he can't be our main defensive midfielder. He'd complement an energetic, box-to-box midfielder well, at this stage. However, we have to plan for the future and figure out how to move on from him. He's currently 32 and will be less likely to seal a spot in central midfield if he doesn't have players protecting him like Pirlo has at Juventus.
Same thing happened with Scholsey towards the end, once the legs are gone there's not much you can do.
Disagree. He's been good defensively. Just looked up his stats and he's 2nd in the league as far as interceptions go. It's his attacking play and thrust which has been missing from his game. I don't think it's his age that's the problem. His problem like most of the squad has been a clear lack of confidence (and periods of injury haven't helped either).
Seems the shackles we're let off against Palace. I've been slightly whinging a bit all season, that he's been made to sit far too deep, almost playing like a third CB at times and not dominating our passing and bossing the midfield like he did last season. He's so important to starting off our attacks and keeping things flowing in central areas that his best attributes are completely underused when he plays so deep.
Anyway against Palace we saw him playing in a way that looked like he wasn't just there to try to 'protect the back four' but to impact the game in midfield and going forward. Another big part of him performing was having Mata in close proximity as an outlet. Carrick to Mata was our highest passing combination and Mata to Carrick our third highest.
Having Mata (and Rooney) there in close proximity makes a massive difference to how we've played previously, when he's receiving the ball from the CBs and he looks forward only to see Rooney and RvP both miles away running away from him in behind the oppositions defence and his only option is to spread the ball wide.
It was nice to see Rooney dropping deeper, as in his last few games since returning from injury I thought he'd reverted back to playing too high. Having these outlets for Carrick is always going to improve our passing and allow him to dictate things and pull the strings, and in Mata, Rooney and Kagawa we have three players who can do that effectively.
I hope he kicks on from here, and is allowed to play like that more because his performances were a massive highlight last season.
Anyway against Palace we saw him playing in a way that looked like he wasn't just there to try to 'protect the back four' but to impact the game in midfield and going forward. Another big part of him performing was having Mata in close proximity as an outlet. Carrick to Mata was our highest passing combination and Mata to Carrick our third highest.
Having Mata (and Rooney) there in close proximity makes a massive difference to how we've played previously, when he's receiving the ball from the CBs and he looks forward only to see Rooney and RvP both miles away running away from him in behind the oppositions defence and his only option is to spread the ball wide.
It was nice to see Rooney dropping deeper, as in his last few games since returning from injury I thought he'd reverted back to playing too high. Having these outlets for Carrick is always going to improve our passing and allow him to dictate things and pull the strings, and in Mata, Rooney and Kagawa we have three players who can do that effectively.
I hope he kicks on from here, and is allowed to play like that more because his performances were a massive highlight last season.