Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me
Leaving Old Trafford last night following United’s lackluster draw with B
asel, feeling somewhat dejected, I immediately recieved two texts almost simultaneously.
The first text read: “Didn’t see owt of Carrick all night!” The second read: “Carrick MOTM IMO”.
It was the same when I visited twitter later that night, with some claiming Carrick was a “disgrace, waste of space, passenger again etc.” Others were tweeting “superb, brilliant, best player on the pitch, the only bright light in midfield.”
Looking at various match reviews it was the same contradictory tale, the Manchester Evening News’s Stuart Mathieson gave Carrick Five out of Ten describing his performance with the sentence: The midfielder was pretty anonymous and his usual protection of a defence as anchor man was non-existent
United fans who rated the players via the MEN website went even further, giving Carrick an average of 3.9 -the worst of any United player.
The United Religion had a different view, their player ratings noted: Michael Carrick 7- Was great with the ball at his feet, and Carrick showed that he could offer much more to the United attack if he could get forward, but limited capabilities from his teammates prevent that.
The Busby Way’s Facebook page was another example of paradoxes: Carrick was our best player tonight in my opinion.
I wouldn’t trade Carrick for a pizza.
My own personal opinion of Carrick’s performance was that he played well, my only criticism was his attempted tackle on Xhaka on the way to Basel’s third goal was pitiful.
I’ve never been one for examining stats to see if a player’s performed well, I much prefer to simply watch a game and make a judgment. As I left the ground last night, I felt Carrick had been, behind Danny Welbeck, our best player.
The stats -which were all over twitter from the Carrick supporters brigade seem to back this opinion up with a high number of forward passes. That doesn’t tell the full story of course as many people will point to Carrick’s inability to fully protect the back four- as Mathieson did. I think this is being harsh as it wasn’t Carrick’s fault United conceded three goals last night- bigger fingers needed to be pointed at the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra who were both well below par.
The question is Michael Carrick: ‘Brilliant’ or ‘Anonymous’ last night?
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We need a world-class MF. None of the current four — or any pairing of them — is a Hargreaves or Scholes. Same old, same old. Ferguson is trying to bluff his way to another title with no new MF. He might do it, but forget about the Champions League.
Personally i thought he was woeful and in-effective yet again. Im starting to consider the possibillity he has been reading Paul Mckennas book and has taught himself how to hypnotise people as i am at a complete and utter loss as to how anyone can have watched that game last night and thought anything other than he was p*ss poor as usual and had no impact on the game whatsoever. You would guess he was deployed last night as a shield for the defence with Ando getting forward? So lets see how well he did that? We let 3 goals in and it could have been a lot more. Seriously someone please please give me a valid reason for the opinion that he had a good game? Best defence i can offer him is that he wasnt the only one played poorly.
The earlier we begin to realise that it is due to the likes of carrick that we fail to perform against a 3-man midfield. Carrick is a very average player, we need a good dmf.Cleverley coming into the team this season has been a breathe of freshair. Enough with the excuses made in carrick’s defense. Enough said
I certainly don’t think that Carrick was as bad as some people are making out last night but lets be brutally honest, the bloke has been going downhill for two seasons now and I really don’t see what he has to offer any more because the game seems to be passing him by.
Tom Cleverley has shown in just a couple of games what United have been lacking in recent years; somebody in CM who passes and moves, somebody willing to play one touch football and keep us going forward. Carrick is the opposite of this, he needs two or three touches every time, is not at all dynamic and just slows down our play all the time (like Berbatov but thats another story).
So, I do think Carrick is a squad player but I hope his playing time is kept to a minimum this season and Fergie should have bought somebody in to compliment TC and Ando – his excuse of not needing anybody because Pogba is coming through has been shown to be false because now Fergie says Pogba will be going out on loan next season…we should have got De Rossi!
I thought Carrick did really well last night. Both going forward and defending. I also think that when united falls back deep to defend just outside the penalty area, Carrick, as opposed to anderson, continues to put pressure on the opposing players. Maybe he lacks quick feet in those areas though. Anderson, on the other hand, seems to switch to “off-mode” in Uniteds deep defensive play and becomes very passive. For Carrick-Anderson, or Fletcher-Anderson, Celverley-Anderson, to work as a the central midfielders Anderson can’t be as lazy in defending outside the box in my mind. I think that is what caused some of the “unbalanced” defending last night.
I’m sorry but we need to get rid of carrick. He hardly does anything well. He can hardly be a pass master if he’s he’s doing them square and back passes. His passes forward are jux too obvious. He lacks immagination now. Can’t protect the back 4 and very static as well. His style doesn’t suit Ando and Fletch.So I don’t know what he does best. Ando playing better alongside Cleverly is no coincidence. Carrick is just immobile and hardly comfy on the ball. We need a new MF.
Our overall performance is very poor,there is no need to start criticising one player or the other.The guyz lack the fire that can propel the club to the summit….I just hate to comment @all…the killer last min goal that is our trademark is not utilise in d last 2 games…not happy but we can fight again….we shouldn’t put our self in a hot soup to get out of a relatively easy group.Luv 4rm 9j
The man’s brilliant for sure. So under-rated, but he’s one to keep. Carrick in midfield = United possession. Love the guy.