Alas poor Carrick...WTF has happened?

I find it amazing how we can he go from becoming one of our most overly criticised players to one of our never criticised players on here.

He's playing a few levels well below the performances he had last year and is capable of.

He's also gone more into his shell and become a bigger coward than ever at taking responsibility in midfield.
 
He's reverted back to the rubbish Carrick of 3 seasons ago. Just when I had managed to convince my dad that he was actually fantastic *sigh*
 
At his very best he was never good enough to play for any of the top European teams midfield except for us.

He was a good player but never great at all.
 
He's 33 and needs replacing. We need to replace that spine Rio, Vidic and Carrick. They far too slow.

He should have a bench role next season.
 
It's true that he has never been a top class midfielder, he performed above himself by keeping our midfield afloat for this long. It was unreasonable of anyone to assume he could continue doing it as he gets older.

He has been poor this season but I wouldn't be too harsh on him. He should never have been placed in a position where so much of our performance depended on him, he's not a Keane/Scholes level player.
 
Looks more like he didn't really know what he was doing. His post-match interview also suggests so.

Almost as if we went there with no gameplan and shit ourselves when we realised it involved another football team.

It's pretty pointless going from player thread to player thread saying he's been rubbish in the last game because it applies to pretty much everyone bar De Gea.
 
Well in Michael. He did well to stand his ground in the face of further vacuous questions from the Moyes-justifying broadcast media.

The players are trying. They always do. There is only so much they can do, however. Football clubs employ coaching staff for good reason.
 
And here we go, blame Carrick for everything even though he played better game than anyone else from our team, but it's all Carrick's fault.

kouroux said:
In a normal world, this would be his last season as a starter. He's been so poor this season and I've always been a big fan of him ...
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Do you think the sam about the rest of squad too?
 
Amar__ said:
And here we go, blame Carrick for everything even though he played better game than anyone else from our team, but it's all Carrick's fault.



Do you think the sam about the rest of squad too?
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How do you even conclude that I'm solely blaming Carrick with my post ? It's his thread so it's natural to criticize him in here. I don't have to mention the other players and by doing that it doesn't mean I don't think the same about them .....
He's been average this season and a shadow of his last season self.
 
The Carrick who can't handle being put under pressure showed up today. He was also very static.
 
No one can blame Carrick for our loss yesterday. When Carrick had the ball yesterday, I don't think there was more than one option off the ball, and that was probably sidewards or backwards.

Players like Busquets, Alonso, Pirlo, etc, look so good because they've always got at least 5 or 6 options off the ball. Our players tend to run off the ball, instead of towards it.

Against Palace, although a weaker opposition, when Carrick had the likes of Mata, Rooney (who dropped), Fellaini and Januzaj, he looked good because they were always options for him to pass to.
 
TBF to him yesterday he had players around him who were absolutely pathetic on the ball. The biggest culprits namely Cleverley, Smalling, Rio and Vidic. Its as if they were scared to bring the ball forward.
 
kouroux said:
How do you even conclude that I'm solely blaming Carrick with my post ? It's his thread so it's natural to criticize him in here. I don't have to mention the other players and by doing that it doesn't mean I don't think the same about them .....
He's been average this season and a shadow of his last season self.
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I don't think you're blaming just him, but "in a normal world this would be his last season" seems bit harsh.
 
thepolice123 said:
TBF to him yesterday he had players around him who were absolutely pathetic on the ball. The biggest culprits namely Cleverley, Smalling, Rio and Vidic. Its as if they were scared to bring the ball forward.
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Moyes is the biggest culprit of them all...
 
People criticising that interview are idiots. He's never overly charismatic in interviews and he certainly wasn't going to come out all guns blazing after a defeat like that. Seriously what were people expecting?

I was happy with his performance against Palace but he seemed to sit deep as f*ck again last night, and I can't decide whether it's tactical instruction or something that happens when he's pressed. At times it's like:

de Gea
Smalling Rio Vidic Evra
Carrick


Valencia Cleverley Rooney Young
RvP
​
There's nothing wrong with 4-1-4-1 but not when the midfield gulf is so huge.
 
kouroux said:
I meant "as a starter" which changes the severity of my words. He's getting old and might never reach last season's level anymore.
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32 is not old. A player like him can be preserved and go on for many years in the right team and system. Lining up next to Cleverley and 2 of 4 forward options being filled by Young and Valencia will make any decent midfielder look like a sack of shit of the moment.
 
Kag said:
Well in Michael. He did well to stand his ground in the face of further vacuous questions from the Moyes-justifying broadcast media.

The players are trying. They always do. There is only so much they can do, however. Football clubs employ coaching staff for good reason.
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I feel sorry for Michael, he gets trundled out every time we lose. I have noticed that watching MUTV. If we have lost recently it is either him or Darren who have to face the music.
 
ISSYNAZAR said:
32 is not old. A player like him can be preserved and go on for many years in the right team and system. Lining up next to Cleverley and 2 of 4 forward options being filled by Young and Valencia will make any decent midfielder look like a sack of shit of the moment.
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Exactly preserved. We have such a midfield that he is being played and played. SAF has to take some of the blame for that, but the summer debacle has not helped.
 
kouroux said:
I meant "as a starter" which changes the severity of my words. He's getting old and might never reach last season's level anymore.
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Fcuk, I missed the part "as a starter", my bad.
 
I've said for ages that even at his best, he should ideally only be the second best midfielder at the club. Again, but sorry, I blame Sir Alex for this. He should have gotten in a better partner ages ago.

To think somebody in here described him as 'heroic'! Of all fecking words to describe Michael Carrick, whom for as many years I can remember has been spoken about in the context of the player he 'could be if he grew a pair of balls'.

Still, he is still easily the best of all the shit masquerading as 'midfielders' in our squad. Cleverley needs to feck off pronto for a start. I'd have Anderson over him any day of the week.
 
ISSYNAZAR said:
32 is not old. A player like him can be preserved and go on for many years in the right team and system. Lining up next to Cleverley and 2 of 4 forward options being filled by Young and Valencia will make any decent midfielder look like a sack of shit of the moment.
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It's old for the kinda midfield we expect from him and specially when his partners are either bad or new to the club. We needed Carrick to perform at a level close to last season in this one. Last season we had those same shit options you mentioned playing in the same midfield with him but Carrick still played a lot better and even carried us at times.
 
I was hounded yesterday for my views on Carrick THIS season, but every top club has at least one midfielder who dictates and controls their play. You have: Xavi, Yaya, Alonso, Schweinsteiger, Arteta and many more but what I'm getting at is United have always had at least one player who can control the game for us. You can clearly see the difference in our play. Last week vs Palace, our play was so measured because we held the ball. Mata came in and did a good job recycling the ball as did Fellaini and Carrick but yesterday Carrick couldn't control my arse when I'm having a shit...

I don't know if he's struggling because he's burdened with the defensive aspect as well as the creative aspect and then the controlling aspect piled on top, or whether he hates Moyes and wants him to get the sack but either way, we are suffering badly because he isn't controlling our games for us.
 
kouroux said:
It's old for the kinda midfield we expect from him and specially when his partners are either bad or new to the club. We needed Carrick to perform at a level close to last season in this one. Last season we had those same shit options you mentioned playing in the same midfield with him but Carrick still played a lot better and even carried us at times.
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Because he had a tactically adept manager who was largely positive and about attacking...not about trying to be compact and the magic word of "hopefully". The lot of them are playing significantly worse so it makes no sense that we're pinpointing midfield as a standout issue today. It's so much worse
 
Carrick is not the player who puts in tackles at the edge of his box. His manager should have twigged that before spending £70 million on two players who've had the best seasons as number 10s.

Carrick has been doing the job of two players since Fletcher got ill. Have some respect for a player who's more decorated than most in the history of our club.
 
ISSYNAZAR said:
Because he had a tactically adept manager who was largely positive and about attacking...not about trying to be compact and the magic word of "hopefully". The lot of them are playing significantly worse so it makes no sense that we're pinpointing midfield as a standout issue today. It's so much worse
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I agree but I still think Carrick is getting old now. There aren't many mdifielders of his age playing for clubs of the same level without having 2 other partners to help them. If we'll keep on playing two CMs next season then I really hope Carrick isn't one of them to start most matches anymore.


Nem 7 said:
Carrick is not the player who puts in tackles at the edge of his box. His manager should have twigged that before spending £70 million on two players who've had the best seasons as number 10s.

Carrick has been doing the job of two players since Fletcher got ill. Have some respect for a player who's more decorated than most in the history of our club.
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I didn't disrespect him, I didn't insult him.
 
KingMinger22 said:
At his very best he was never good enough to play for any of the top European teams midfield except for us.
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At his very best he was never good enough to play for any of the top European teams, except for the actual best team in Europe.
 
ISSYNAZAR said:
32 is not old. A player like him can be preserved and go on for many years in the right team and system. Lining up next to Cleverley and 2 of 4 forward options being filled by Young and Valencia will make any decent midfielder look like a sack of shit of the moment.
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It is old. Let's not make the same mistake we made with Scholes, Rio, Vidic and Giggs to a extent. Let's replace these players now rather than waiting till they 37.
 
Calling out Carrick for being soft is a bit...I don't know. It's like calling out a golden retriever for not being a pitbull.

He was bought specifically with some of his reserved qualities in mind. Would just keep getting the ball to our then-excellent wingers. Wouldn't try to score. Wouldn't add another ego to a team with a few very big ones already. Last thing SAF needed was a player who might cut into what he believed was going tobe Ronaldo's skyrocket to stardom.

To accurately judge where he is you'd need good wingers ahead of him and a steady midfield partner.
 
We've all established for long now hes a confidence player, and Moyes is the anti-thesis of a manager who instills confidence in his players.

Do the maths.
 
Carrick's level has dropped dramatically. He is just not putting the same type of performances of the last years.

For example, his passing forward between lines, has been erratic this season. Picking up players surrounded by 3 opposition players is not the way to go. Maybe is a matter of frustration, but still.

His defensive job, also not so good any more. He is an intelligent player, that knows where to move, and gets a good number of interceptions just by doing that, but he can't track down. Opposition midfielders running past him is normal these days. This put pressure in his team mates. There is a reason why Cleverley looks so much better playing alongside Jones than with Carrick.

I really like Carrick and have always rate him (used to laughed at people that criticize him when we signed him), but there is a time for everyone when his body stops responding like it used to.

I prefer we sell him rather than watching him playing like Ferdinand these days. Of course he is not at that horrible level yet. Ferdinand should retire. Carrick can still be a good player for some decent teams for a couple of seasons, specially in a 3 (5) man midfield. Just imagine Pirlo playing for us... he would be shit, but he is class at Juve.
 
It was painful listening to his interview last night. When asked 'Have you let yourselves down?', he wouldn't even answer. Does he not even have the bollocks to at least give some minor criticism of himself and the rest of the team? I don't get why he side-stepped that question. Constantly laughing too; what the feck was so funny after being humiliated by that shower of shite?
 
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