I used to watch and play a shit-load of football as a kid. But I never really followed a team then, I was just a fan of watching teams with my favourite individual players until about the late 90's. And most of my favourite players in England were United players, so I watched alot of the players who are now coming to retirement. I only really started following a team (Madrid) once most of my favourite players were there, around '98 or '99. It was a toss-up between Madrid and Manchester at the time. It was quite strange really, if Schmeichel hadn't retired I might have ended up following United.
Lots of interesting things from Paul today. One that I haven't seen commented on was his suggestion that Rooney may be dropping back to attacking midfield. Have had the same thought, especially since we signed Ashley Young - could play Cheech with Young in the hole allowing both Nani and Valencia on the wings with Rooney in midfield. Problem being we don't yet have a Keane type player to be a solid defensive mid - which is what helped Scholes transition. Think Rooneys energy levels and tackling (by and large) are good enough. Quote; "In time, I can see him dropping back a bit and filling the role I had. He did it in a couple of games towards the end of the season and did well. He is more dangerous where he is at the moment, but he could adapt. It would just need a bit more discipline." http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896...es-pointless-arsenal-and-says-he-hopes-samir-
We may not have Keane but we have Jones who can play the classic DM, sitting infront of the defense and ofcourse Carrick.
Well Keane had a reputation, which make opposition fearful, make tactical plans and he was world class.
Carrick is world class too. Comfortably. Alonso, Busquets and maybe a couple others do what he does as well/better than he does. That's it. EDIT: I'm being extremely pedantic. I'm sorry. Keane and Carrick are completely different players. Keane>>>>Carrick as an overall player and in terms of presence on the pitch/changing room etc. But when it comes to protecting the defence, we've not missed Keane at all, since Carrick arrived.
Carrick protects the defense, but his passive aggresive style can come back to bite us, when we acutally need to exert pressure in midfield instead of sitting back and inviting pressure like we do.
Correct. It is a lot easier to completely bypass Carrick in central midfield. Carrick is good as a shield and at cutting out passing lanes but he is a reactive defence. I agree with a lot of what johno posted but Keane was proactive and directly hunted threats down. Both have their uses. I prefer the latter.
that's why we need to buy a proper partner for him. He's our best CM, if we have determined we can't work with him we need to get rid and move on or make his stay tenable by actually getting some quality next to him. For all the Keane worship, we catered to him a great deal in his last years here. After the 2nd (it was a 2nd wasn't it?) hip surgery, we had to play a runner and a more creative player to cater to him. We've barely supplied Carrick with what he needs to get the business done on a consistent basis and we know that Carrick isn't the player that Keane is. We'll see how easy he is to bypass when we've got a quality midfield.
You know what I hate most?...We never gave Carrick a proper partner...It was mostly Carrick and someone else....We knew Scholes was ageing and after the 2008 CL win I would have thought that it would be ideal to bring in somebody who had be ideal to partner Carrick....We did nothing about this....The successful teams are the once who always make sure that they have their engine room set and always the same...The Midfield pairing for most of the top teams is always the same unless some rotation is done.... The problem now is that we are trying to bring in somebody to partner Carrick now(atleast thats what I think) who's turning 29 ...But what about an ageing Carrick himself??....So now are we looking to promote Jones' as a successor for Carrick or what are we looking at??.... I had expect Carrick to be performing at a good enough level maybe for 2 years.....3 If I am pushing it....So then what do we do again??...Look for a partner for to the other midfielder who's in the lineup....??....
Who is the ideal partner for Michael Carrick? That would help in the sense of us, not inviting pressure?
Arturo Vidal. Failing him, someone with similar qualities - combative, athletic, good attacker, good tackler, decent vision, good touch, plays well under pressure. Failing that ^^ someone who really excels at the attacking aspects of being a CM who is good with the ball at his feet.
I don't know really. This Keane as a DM myth is widely purported but not really supported by his play. By the time he was a sitting midfielder he'd lost a considerable amount of his mobility and his career was on the tail end. Before that, he was box-to-box and whilst he was defensively aware, he was more concerned with ball winning and retention than shielding. To be clear, Keane in his prime was not a DM. Keane at end of career <<<< Keane in his prime.
I'm one of the biggest fans of Keane...ever but... With him, we got to 1 CL final. With Carrick we got to 3. Hmmm
Keane in his prime was not a DM. However, that doesn't preclude him from being better defensively by being pro-active in pushing opposing midfields back. As the cliche goes, offense is the best form of defense.