Is time to give the former Spurs man some real credit?
With Joey Barton’s claim that he is the best English midfielder coinciding with Michael Carrick’s superb masterclass at Stamford Bridge last night, I thought that there could be a case for Michael Carrick being the best English midfielder.
To me what makes a top class midfielder is all about how well they apply themselves in the role within the tactics that they have been given to play.
Michael Carrick is a tactical player, one whose talents are sometimes sacrificed to play the extremely disciplined role that he has been given and in my opinion he applies himself to the role superbly game in game out.
From observation it seems to me that Michael Carrick’s role is to sit back and protect the defence, to slow the tempo down and help the team to control the game. When in possession his primary objective is to keep possession of the ball and to simply move the ball onto the more clinical players in our team to lead the attack.
He could not have demonstrated this much more than he did last night with his superb pass to Ryan Giggs which led to the goal and his 95% pass completion rate. He is the guy the team falls back on when an attack breaks down yet I hear calls for his head time and time again because he is not a glamour player and because he does not go forward to supplement the attack.
This lack of movement forward and this game style is clearly something that Ferguson has made him adapt. Before 2009 he was given so much more freedom to go forward and be adventurous and it is exactly this that has contributed to his downfall in popularity amongst the Old Trafford faithful.
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There are not many players in the world who plays in this role, probably Sergio Busquets is the only other player that comes to my mind. Here is an extract on ESPN Soccernet which describes Sergio Busquets’ strengths: Cool and composed, he passes the ball simply and is robust in the tackle to break up opposition attacks.
This is the exact role that I believe that Michael Carrick is given at Manchester United. It is given that there are a few times where Michael Carrick has not been particularly cool or composed however those instances have been few and far between lately. Former Tottenham boss Martin Jol said on Carrick, “Michael’s biggest quality is to move play from defence to attack and win the ball. Because of him, other players play better.”
I concede that since I have mentioned that Carrick has been given the Sergio Busquets role to play at Old Trafford it is only fair that I compare the stats of the two. Both players have played 23 league games at their respective clubs but Sergio Busquets has 1 league goal and 3 assists to his name compared to Michael Carrick’s 0 goals and 0 assists. For me this is more explainable by the different styles of the 2 clubs. Where Barcelona easily control and dominate pretty much every game they play, Manchester United does not. This makes it much easier for every player to get in on the act at Barcelona whereas this is not possible at Manchester United. Also I find that in England the clubs press a lot more making the job slightly harder for Carrick to play compared to his Spanish counterpart.
So here comes my conclusion. Michael Carrick’s role is not one that likens him to many others. Tactically his position is just not something that many teams employ. Personally I could not see a midfielder such as Wesley Sneijder playing it. The England team has been trying to use Gareth Barry in a similar kind of role. It is safe to say that he has failed miserably against the big boys. Joey Barton pointed this out when he said in his interview, “Did you see the game against Germany at the World Cup? If you watch the fourth goal, when Mesut Ozil was up against Barry, it was like the hare and the tortoise.”
Maybe this position is one that is unfamiliar to Gareth Barry since he is usually surrounded by 8 other defenders at Manchester City, but Carrick single handedly (or footedly) bosses this position and dons it time and time again and he possesses that big match experience and that winning mentality learnt at Manchester United to succeed at International level. Even though he may not be the best English midfielder, for me he should be regarded as the most important.
Tactically he plays a role that is different to all others, and he plays it exceedingly well. On the international stage I believe he would be appreciated much more since the name of the game is more about keeping possession and Michael Carrick is superb at that. So if Joey Barton considers himself as the best English midfielder, surely it can’t be too far-fetched to think the same of Michael Carrick.
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OMG ! after 1 great performance in 3 years he is now the englands best midfielder ! such an idiotic title doesnt merit a read !
Then why are you here? Seriously.
Good article !!
He’s been awful since that night in Rome. He had a good game the otehr day, and a very good one last night. let’s hope he’s finally got the monkey off his back. When he’s played a whole season like he did last night — then we can talk about best midfielder etc etc. For the time being, let’s give him a chance and wish him well.
Carrick wasn’t awful. He had a couple of average games at the end of last season after picking up injuries. He did look sluggish for a few months, I think he just lost his fitness for a while, that’s why Fergie left him out of the team for a short period.
Remember, you are talking about someone who won three Premier League medals in his first three years at the club. This year he will win his fourth after missing out by a single point last year. And he’ll play in his third Champions League final in five years.
This year Carrick held the midfield together whilst Fletcher dramatically lost form and Anderson and Park missed games through injury.
Look at the number of minutes each player has played in the big Champion League matches. That tells you Carrick is the first name on Fergie’s team sheet, and rightly so.
Carrick is one of the best footballers to play for United, and I’ve seen them all since the days of Paul McGrath and Norman Whiteside.
One decent performance in god knows how long does not merit ‘England’s Best’ tag, it’s incredibly optimistic to say the least.
As a United fan myself, of course I don’t want to claim he’s terrible, but the last 18 months have shown nothing to the contrary. Whether this performance is the spring board for Carrick to get back to the form he was enjoying a couple of years ago remains to be seen, but I think this article is premature
After doing abit of research myself, i found that Carrick’s pass completion statistic (in all comps) is a very impressive 86.65%, i stat i believe is only bested by Paul Scholes this season (89%). Bearing in mind scholes is renowned for his passing ability, and that Carrick has had more game time, it goes to show just how much of an underrated player he is.
Carrick is outstanding, the best English midfielder by a considerable distance. He makes the difficult look incredibly simple.
Incredibly, for someone who looks so languid in his running style, he runs more distance than any other player, as the Champions League stats demonstrate. And he makes more interceptions than any other player in the Premier League.
Capello should have been sacked as England manager for not picking Carrick and selecting Gerrard and Lampard ahead of him. I wonder what Wayne Rooney thought when he saw Carrick sitting on the bench in South Africa and seeing Gerrard and Lampard hitting 30-yard pot shots at goal??
Completely agree with this article his is incredibly underated and holds the whole team together