Who, Carrick? Is this a joke?
17
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 29
- Clean sheets
- 9
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 4
Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. But what you posted before was shown to be bollox.
Take this haters :
Last season despite being out of form, Carrick had 73.9 % forward passing rate per 90 mins.
Modric and Alonso who were among the "better" midfielder across Europe had 67.3 % and 69.9 % respectively.
Caf darling Kroos and someone branded the "best midfielder in the world" by some had a tremendous 64.9 %.
Gunodgan in 2012/ 2013 had 64.6 %.
He also had more key passes than Alonso and more than Gundogan from 2012/ 2013 and about the same pass length as the others.
In Fergie's last season, the forward passing percentage was over 75 % !! Sideways/ backward passer my ass.
As per my previous post, we'll miss those forward passes and I'm not sure who's going to provide them. Blind is definitely a lot more conservative in terms of his passing options.
Herrera is much more willing to take a risky pass but his pass completion % is quite poor for a CM.
In conclusion, central midfield remains a problem area.
Um, Di Maria?
I was kind of hoping he'd be further forwards. Don't really want him being the first CM to get the ball from our defenders. He's wasted that deep. Personally, I'd like to see him wide in a front three or out on the wing.
It's all to with this "transition" shit that Mourinho is obsessed with. As soon as the opposition attack breaks down you want to get the ball to the feet of your attacking players as quickly as possible. Di Maria hanging back is one option but I think we'd be better off if we had someone else to make that first pass that turns defence into attack.
You've came to that conclusion even though one has yet to play a game for the club and the other two new recruits have yet to play more than 60 minutes? We need another midfielder, I'm sure of that, but whether or not our midfield is a problem area remains to be seen. Herrera and Di Maria provide boundless energy and flair and I'd take that above passing percentages any day.
Hmm, true. Still, Herrera is every bit as capable as Carrick at doing that job though, obviously less proven in the PL but his stats (same format as above) were really impressive in La Liga last season as I recall. Hopefully he's back from injury shortly.
Di Maria doesn't need to be too far forward, not to the extent Mata does anyway. He was practically a box to box midfielder for Real last season. His work rate and energy is ridiculous.
I'm definitely jumping to conclusions.
Do you not think that every midfield benefits from someone really pulling the strings, though? A really precise and accurate passer who will consistently hit the target 9 times out of 10 but also has the range of passing to switch play really quickly, from defence to attack, or side to side.
Assuming you do think a good team needs someone like that in it, who fits the bill in our current squad?
EDIT; Probably Herrera, I assume. Hopefully Hererra.
I wish people would stop using his time as CM at Real Madrid as a reason to use him as a CM here.. There's no Ronaldo/Bale on the wings here, he will be much, much less effective. Using one of the best attacking players in the world in a box to box CM roll is such a waste and I will be fuming if it happens.
Yeah, this season would be far less problematic if we still had the Carrick of 12/13. What a beast.
So where would you use him?
Actually we do still have Michael Carrick, now you mention it!
Obviously, he was gash last season but who wasn't? Against top opponents, him and Blind might be our best bet at the base of midfield.
On either wing, preferably the right wing where he can tuck inside if needed or go wide when needed. Our team as a whole will be much better with players of his quality dragging defenders out of position and allowing more space in the middle. I've seen it in every PL game thus far, teams know our wings are probably in the bottom 5 of the league so it's easy to deal with us 1v1, whilst flooding the centre so our actual quality players have no room to play. I don't think Young/Valencia have beaten a man yet... It's obvious that last year our games where Januzaj was wide and playing well, the team played better, not just because of his individual ability, but because of the points I made above.. Players are scared of these type of attackers, so they lose shape etc etc.
Generally, yes, I'm a big fan of that metronome kind of midfielder. With that said, I don't think it's completely necessary. The Dortmund side that did so well didn't have that kind of player. I wouldn't say Atletico had one last season either. I think energy and creativity in the middle of the park was more important and I think we're on our way to sorting that out.
I said in the Carrick thread yesterday that I think he'll still play a big role in our side on his return, mostly due to reasons you outline above. I haven't seen much of Blind at all, but as long as he has the balls to take the ball from the defenders on the turn then I'll be happy. It should be nice to have a different option in there at least.
Carrick is hideously underrated here. He literally carried our midfield singlehandedly for much of the 2012/13 season until Scholes gave him a helping hand. A top, top midfielder.
Right, but you realize he wasn't remotely as good a winger as he is a midfielder?
Hehe, I know we do, it's just difficult to imagine him hitting those heights again, especially with the injury.
My problem with Carrick is that he's quite slow and he takes an absolute AGE to pass the ball sometimes. If we ever get to a fast passing system, Carrick will slow us down and stand out like a sore thumb.
He's also 33 so how long could he or even should he be playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world?.
He's also 33 so how long could he or even should he be playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world?.
Not sure he's that sort of player (admittedly on very little evidence!). Seems like a very low risk footballer. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing.
Good points about Atletico and Dortmund.
When you see what he can do on the wing like in the Germany game, don't you think it would be a bit of a waste of his talents having him in centre midfield?.
What? No. He's a better midfielder than winger. It'd be the exact opposite.
Yes he is. One good season as CM surrounded by the worlds best players in one of the most one sided leagues and you think he's a CM.. He's obviously a winger, just has insane vision and passing ability which makes people like you automatically assume he's a CM. He's not
You're right, yes, what possible evidence could there be for me thinking he's a CM, it's not like he played there the entirety of last season in which he was one of the world's best players, or plays most of his matches for Argentina there, or looks like he's going to be used there for us. How silly of me.Yes he is. One good season as CM surrounded by the worlds best players in one of the most one sided leagues and you think he's a CM.. He's obviously a winger, just has insane vision and passing ability which makes people like you automatically assume he's a CM. He's not
Okay, okay.. Why aren't you adressing the rest of my post about how he was surrounded by some of the worlds best players, and now he'll be playing with Young/Valencia on the wings. No matter how good you think he is as a CM, I will bet my god damn house on it he will be less than half as effective as a CM for us and you're welcome to screenshot this quote and bring it up in 8 months time You probably won't be here to do that.
We won't be using either of those players when we have a fit squad, btw.
So what squad are you suggesting? A narrow 4-3-1-2 with Falcao - RvP partnering eachother
? Everytime I see someone suggest something like that it makes my arse laugh. And trust me, I'll be here.Shortening the odds.
I think we should bet money on that. You in?So what squad are you suggesting? A narrow 4-3-1-2 with Falcao - RvP partnering eachother
It's true
Erm, sure lol. What makes you think I'd leave?
Haven't heard that one before...So what squad are you suggesting? A narrow 4-3-1-2 with Falcao - RvP partnering eachother
Why's that even funny anyway? A midfield diamond probably suits our squad more than any other formation.
Because shoehorning our players to get them all to play is screwing up our balance.. It doesn't work with the 3-5-2 to get Rooney/Mata/RVP playing and I'm confident it won't work to get Falcao in there either. If we had an Aguero type striker then maybe so, but two up top isn't going to work with our current players, no matter how hard we try. 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 is the winning formula.
Young definitely has.
I'm guessing most are guessing what he'll be like at DCM?
Carrick can play a great lopng ball and incisive pass, his problem for me always in an attacking sense particularly in big games was that he struggled a hell of a lot under pressure and he did/does often pass the ball backwards of sideways. I have never been a big fan of Carricks to be honest but an ability to play an incisive pass (with time on the ball) is certainly something he isnt lacking. Also positionally he is very good defensively, something I certainly hope Blind has an ability for
It's also pretty unlikely given that our three highest earners are centre forwards. Rooney's best form has come as a second striker and he was pretty decent with RVP under Fergie so I'm sure we could find something that works. It's hard to judge their partnership under the shambles that was Moyes and our midfield last season.
The diamond suits our midfielders, a regular back four suits our defenders and the formation in General allows us to play 2 up top. Van Gaal is his own man but it seems he obvious choice with this squad. There would be much more shoehorning going on if we tried to force Rooney or RVP out wide in a 433 or Di Maria and Mata into a 352
Yes he is. One good season as CM surrounded by the worlds best players in one of the most one sided leagues and you think he's a CM.. He's obviously a winger, just has insane vision and passing ability which makes people like you automatically assume he's a CM. He's not
Which was his only consistantly good season for Madrid and do you realise he played in central midfield earlier in his career?
That's why I'm saying we don't.. I also don't think LVG will play without wingers, and as he stated that Di Maria is like Robben, he will be a winger or a forward, not a midfielder. Also not using wide men is criminal with how good Falcao is in the air.
Probably our biggest failing as a team this season, so I doubt he'd be the worst offender!