Alas poor Carrick...WTF has happened?

It'll be super interesting what Moyes does in the summer, presuming no one leaves.

Rooney, VP, Mata and Januzaj are a foursome everyone gets excited about. Then you have Carrick, and then you have the man Moyes himself paid £27m for.

So which of the 6 of them are going to drop out on a regular basis? I'm genuinely intrigued.
 
Sean_RedDevil said:
If we're signing two new top top CM players

I don't know if Carrick is happy with a bench role in most games

If a club like Newcastle are interested in him......maybe he goes there
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He's 32. I am sure he'll be content with more of a squad role if that were to be the case. Even so he'll still start plenty of games especially if we qualify for the EL.
 
akash02 said:
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).
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Hmm...must have been selective memory, on my part, then. Yeah, you're right, he's not bad, defensively. It must have been very selective memory on my part to say that, though I have to say, whenever he has played in recent matches, more often than not, I've seen gaps that Carrick has failed to cover. Plus, he has been poor in recovering his ground whenever he's pushed high up the pitch.

On the attack, however, I feel his lack of influence has been down to our forward pushing high up the pitch, leaving only the wingers, full backs, and central defenders as his options. Against Crystal Palace, however, he had more options with Rooney and Mata coming in between the gaps, allowing for Carrick to exert a greater influence in his game. He wasn't that higher up the pitch than before, though. He was always playing from the deep areas.
 
I agree with Keano. Flat. No reaction. No defiance. Nothing, just like the team right now. No belief, no substance, nothing.
 
Depressing interview. Keano rightly calling him out. It kind of seemed like he wanted to say something about Moyes.
 
I would probably cry in his place. He was running like horse making himself available for the pass all the time just so rest of our team could stop running and watch him having to return the ball to Vidic.
I though he is starting to decline this season, but fair play to him, apart from Mata, our only player from midfield to attack who is actually trying to play some football and looks like he posses some quality.
 
Keano's great. He would have slapped Carrick for that "tackle" he put on Joel Campbell before the second goal.
 
I especially liked the bit where he didn't want to admit any responsibility at all for his own performance.

The thing is, blame Moyes all you want. It takes a fecking nutjob to defend him at this point...but whoever would replace him, the first thing they would need to do in order to not fail just as miserably is drop Michael Carrick from the squad, because his performances are consistently absolutely fecking pathetic.

The biggest incrimination of Moyes IS his bafflingly persistent reliance on players who haven't once this season performed anywhere near adequately, and Carrick's name is up there with Vidic as the two main examples. No one can be stupid enough to watch Michael Carrick play this season and think what he's been doing has been anywhere near ok, let alone good.
 
Ah, noodlehair shows up when Carrick has a poor game. I love you and we should go for some kebab fam, but come on.

He was poor today, but he's shown good form recently. What is Moyes meant to do? Play Fellaini with Cleverley? Play Giggs? Our options are dire in midfield and Carrick is still our best midfielder. I didn't understand the system really. When you look at Carrick's best games this season, it's no coincidence that his best games have been when we have wingers tuck in/Rooney (Welbeck) drop deep. He's not going to orchestrate. But I do also feel that he's on the decline. We were heavily reliant on him last season, and I said that we needed a replacement because he's not going to maintain his form in 11/12 and 12/13 this season.
 
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When he was asked "did you let yourselves down tonight" I shouted "YES" and I really wanted him to just say the same. I hate these shit footballer's interviews where they won't ever commit to saying anything bad about themselves or the team. He should have admitted they were utter wank and pledged that they would work themselves into the ground trying to put it right. Give us something to cling to, Michael.

I mean, his wife is right though, Roy Keane is a cnut.
 
At the end of last season I thought we'd seen a change in him. He'd become a voice and had the bollocks to step up to the plate as he had done all season. This year he's been as bad as anyone and gone back into his shell. Would not be too sad to see him leave in the summer.
 
MoneyMay said:
Ah, noodlehair shows up when Carrick has a poor game. I love you and we should go for some kebab fam, but come on.

He was poor today, but he's shown good form recently. What is Moyes meant to do? Play Fellaini with Cleverley? Play Giggs? Our options are dire in midfield and Carrick is still our best midfielder. I didn't understand the system really. When you look at Carrick's best games this season, it's no coincidence that his best games have been when we have wingers tuck in/Rooney (Welbeck) drop deep. He's not going to orchestrate. But I do also feel that he's on the decline. We were heavily reliant on him last season, and I said that we needed a replacement because he's not going to maintain his form in 11/12 and 12/13 this season.
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You say this as though Moyes hasn't had 2 transfer windows to address the CM issue.
 
Didn't have a good game like everyone else, but honestly what were his options today? He's got clev/Rooney underhitting passes all game, everytime we get the ball it's a field of statues in front of him, most of whom are just in positions where it's just not reasonable to pick them out. He's not gonna carry the ball past people, it's not his style, a lot of other midifelders are similar, and if you don't offer your self for a pass either short or long then there's not much he, nor anyone else you could sub in of his type can do.

I get some of the criticism he receives, for example some times he does seem slow to use the ball. But alot of the criticism seems based on this principle that he should be creating and it doesn't factor in that you need two players, and generally a well gelled attack to make it work. Like I said, who's actually getting in to positions to maneuver the ball forward? Clev/Rooney are long gone up the pitch as soon as we get near the ball. Giving it to Valencia/Clev is just largely a waste of time. And who's making runs in behind to stretch them and open up space/an opportunity for a pass? The wingers aren't and RVP was hardly to active. I don't think you could go through the game and pick out a load of time he missed out a good passing opportunity.
 
Carl said:
You say this as though Moyes hasn't had 2 transfer windows to address the CM issue.
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Not really. Moyes is to blame for not buying properly, but I was just considering the options we have right now.
 
MoneyMay said:
Ah, noodlehair shows up when Carrick has a poor game. I love you and we should go for some kebab fam, but come on.

He was poor today, but he's shown good form recently. What is Moyes meant to do? Play Fellaini with Cleverley? Play Giggs? Our options are dire in midfield and Carrick is still our best midfielder. I didn't understand the system really. When you look at Carrick's best games this season, it's no coincidence that his best games have been when we have wingers tuck in/Rooney (Welbeck) drop deep. He's not going to orchestrate. But I do also feel that he's on the decline. We were heavily reliant on him last season, and I said that we needed a replacement because he's not going to maintain his form in 11/12 and 12/13 this season.
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What do you mean shows up after he has a poor game? I would struggle to show up after he hasn't had a poor game.

I mean, he was fecking abysmal against Palace, and people on here presumably just decided to pretend he played well. He didn't. Fellaini by merely being ok, made him look like an inadequate, daydreaming sloth.

When were these best games Carrick has had this season? All of our best midfield performances have come in the odd game from players other than Carrick, and the only time we've looked consistently ok in midfield (and that's the best it's got) was when he was injured. Literally the second he came back we went to shit again...but that must just be some kind of weird excusable coincidence...

I don't understand how bad he needs to start playing before some people are willing to accept it isn't anywhere near good enough. Unfortunately Moyes comes under this category.
 
noodlehair said:
What do you mean shows up after he has a poor game? I would struggle to show up after he hasn't had a poor game.

I mean, he was fecking abysmal against Palace, and people on here presumably just decided to pretend he played well. He didn't. Fellaini by merely being ok, made him look like an inadequate, daydreaming sloth.

When were these best games Carrick has had this season? All of our best midfield performances have come in the odd game from players other than Carrick, and the only time we've looked consistently ok in midfield (and that's the best it's got) was when he was injured. Literally the second he came back we went to shit again...but that must just be some kind of weird excusable coincidence...

I don't understand how bad he needs to start playing before some people are willing to accept it isn't anywhere near good enough. Unfortunately Moyes comes under this category.
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He was good against Palace, literally his first good game for us this whole season though.
 
noodlehair said:
What do you mean shows up after he has a poor game? I would struggle to show up after he hasn't had a poor game.

I mean, he was fecking abysmal against Palace, and people on here presumably just decided to pretend he played well. He didn't. Fellaini by merely being ok, made him look like an inadequate, daydreaming sloth.

When were these best games Carrick has had this season? All of our best midfield performances have come in the odd game from players other than Carrick, and the only time we've looked consistently ok in midfield (and that's the best it's got) was when he was injured. Literally the second he came back we went to shit again...but that must just be some kind of weird excusable coincidence...
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It means that you've barely given him any praise this season (it's more a reference to the latest games). He's had two very good games lately (Crystal Palace and Fulham). I don't think you'll find many who share the opinion that he was abysmal against Crystal Palace, watch the game again because he was far from what you described him as being. It was an easy game for him, there really wasn't much to do, but he kept things moving, and defended well when the ball was lost. Why would anyone "pretend" he played well against a mediocre side? Most people on here (myself included) share the same consensus: he's had a poor season.

There's no defending that, but he's had a couple of very good games. His best game this season was against Sunderland (away) in the Premier League. He was very good against West Brom too. He's had a couple of these performances and that's been a problem. The Carrick of last season was putting in 8/10 performances consistently, but we've been too reliant on him and this is what we deserve for not buying an alternative to him. His first start since his return from injury was against Norwich, but we all know what Carrick's like.
 
1-0 down and Carrick-Vidic are playing pass the hot potato between them. Cowards. They are meant to be senior players, leaders.
 
shaggy said:
He was good against Palace, literally his first good game for us this whole season though.
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He wasn't though. He took 3 touches to do anything and played every single pass from a static position. He had no defensive work to do at all and hindered us going forwards with his horrible lack of urgency in possession. Fellaini was decent, Mata and Januzaj were quite good. None of that was enabled by Carrick...it just helped disguise his lacklustreness.

If people think that constituted playing well, they must have wiped their memory completely of what a good Michael Carrick performance actually is. Which is I suppose partly understandable since there have been so many completely shite Michael Carrick performances since the last one I would consider good.

I don't know why people are afraid to criticise him. Either they just don't understand that playing with a degree of urgency and mobility is actually quite fundamentally important, or they're so wrapped up in the idea that Michael Carrick is the saviour of our midfield, they've becoming blinded by the refusal to let go of this idea.

There is no way anyone can reasonably defend his level of performance this season. He mixes general cowardlyness with strutting around as if we're 4-0 up. It's like trying to make a reasonable case that Piers Morgan isn't a twat.
 
So what does Mrs Carrick have to say about her husband dodging the question about Moyes? His silence speaks volumes. All Keane said was he was flat in the interview, the sub text being the poxy manager has them flat!!!
 
Yes, 143 passes from 156 total touches against Crystal Palace. This is 3 touches to do anything, indeed. Wonderful calculations.

Against Olympiacos, more interceptions (6) than the rest of our team combined (5). And he does nothing.

If we must eviscerate our players, please let's do it to those with poor effort and a poor attitude on the pitch. Carrick is heroic, running his heart out and attempting to retain possession against the wishes of Moyes and the actions of his defenders.
 
I mean, Paul Scholes wasn't good enough to get away with playing at the tempo Carrick currently does, either with or without possession. Paul Scholes would do this whilst pinging accurate passes forwards and picking out his front players, and it still wasn't anywhere near enough to mask his shortcomings.

Carrick doesnh't do the fowards pass pinging. His default mantra is still to look sideways and give the ball to Paul Scholes, even though Scholes isn't there...and he somehow takes longer to play a sideways nothing pass, than it would take me to walk the ball to the position he passes it to.

This isn't excusable by tactics or formations. It's just genuinely pathetic. Keane was being extremely kind calling him "flat". Any character Carrick did have has long since abandoned its post...and that's just what we need in the team at the moment; spineless, responsibility shirking cretins
 
johnmufc said:
Yes, 143 passes from 156 total touches against Crystal Palace. This is 3 touches to do anything, indeed. Wonderful calculations.

Against Olympiacos, more interceptions (6) than the rest of our team combined (5). And he does nothing.

If we must eviscerate our players, please let's do it to those with poor effort and a poor attitude on the pitch. Carrick is heroic, running his heart out and attempting to retain possession against the wishes of Moyes and the actions of his defenders.
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:lol:

Jesus fecking christ.

He was heroicly hiding behind both of our centrebacks for the first goal...you know the one that occured when Olympiacos played the ball into the area of the pitch Carrick was supposed to be occupying.

His heroic effort to stop the second goal was also nothing short of inspirational.

Also I've watched Palace game back twice and that first stat is at best wildly inaccurate, and at worst something you've just completely made up.

If we're going to just make up stats we might as well do something more useful and just re-invent the league table so we're top of it.

You want the team to do better but wont admit when someone isn't doing their job. Are you David Moyes?
 
He carried our midfield on his own last season which he seems to be unable to repeat this season. Basically we lost our only quality central/defensive midfielder and if the new one (Fellaini) will be quality or not remains to be seen.
 
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