Someone was going to make it sooner or later. Its still early, but Im happy we have him. I had some thoughts on him to post, but I have no time.
Re: The Michael Carrick thread! Im glad we have him as well, if someone will put a (R) in the title I can paste my rant back in
Re: The Michael Carrick thread! I think he should start alongside Scholes for most of our matches until we get a true DM. Carrick is very positionally aware and he's got a good motor on him as well. He'll do enough to protect our back four against crap teams and against good teams, he'll allow us to transition defense into attack very quickly and hopefully that way he allows us to outscore our opponents. I love his range of passing and his ability to slow things down.
Hey, this is an easy comment, but true nonethless: He's better than John O'Shea. Much, much, much better.
Teeth as in... the ones in your mouth that you have latched firmly on Ruud's behind... Sorry couldnt help that one... plz forgive me...lol. Anyhow, I was going to say , Johno has said it before as well. Carrick is alot better defensively than most give him credit for. Of course he's no Keane or Hargreaves in terms of tackling, but he does the job. And he does it way better than Oshea. Infact for the center midfield partnership I'd rather see Carrick next to Scholes because Carrick is just the overall better player. At everything.
I agree that Carrick should get a shot as a defensive mid. He won't out-tackle the makelele's of the world but here bring some pretty superb passing and depth to the center of the pitch. I dont think hes that bad defensively, besides what do we have to lose? Has anyone been knocked out by O'Shea in that role?
im glad we got him too he will produce the goods here even if not right away which is understandable as he needs to settle in. once we get someone(DM) to truly and fully compliment him i think we will see it was a wise investment in the long term and overall
okay now I can rant, WHY THE ******** WASNT HE IN TODAY. IS SAF ON CRACK? I know that arsenal havent been doing well at all this season, and especially since they were without there strikers Henry and V. Persie today nobody expected much of a fight, but COME ON. O'Shea has proven time and time again that he is shit. He can play a defensive holding role well I suppose, but that is the last thing Man Utd should be trying to do. You need to attack and not play back. Thats why Carrick is so useful. A side by side duo of Carrick-Scholes would be a deadly combination, if Wes and Rio could do there ********ing jobs. Carrick could even play behind Scholes and and still be offensive. I suppose I can undestand the logic that SAF used in starting O'Shea over Carrick, but after the first 20 minutes I would have had him warming up to come in. Rediculous. This really needs to show SAF that there is a reason we bought Carrick, and that he needs to be used AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. The people that are saying "he hasnt lived up to expectations" or "he was over payed" well if youve played only a few games with the squad its going to take more then that to get comfortable, especially when you dont have the luxery of playing with Rooney and Scholes. Carrick needs to be a every day starter, weve seen O'Shea be absolute shit once again, and hopefully its the last time. I can assure you that if Carrick was in today it would have been a different game, especially in the second half. Subtracting O'Shea's shit and adding Carricks brilliance, I believe we would have pulled out the win. BRING ON CARRICK.
18mil and he isn't good enough to start in a match against one of the top 4 teams in the league? Give the kid some ********ing games.
That wasn't the problem. If it was just ability, Ruud wouldn't have been let go. It's the system, and how you fit pieces into it.
Dude, then spend your 18.6m on someone else. It's not like SAF is a new manager seeking to impose his scheme on somebody else's squad. If a player doesn't fit - ermm... look in the mirror.
As I said several times before the transfer, Carrick plays Dmid like a wily veteran. He's slow and not particularly quick, but he has excellent positional awareness and is usually where he needs to be. He reads the game defensively well, and can mark or tackle well enough, but relies on his positional sense the vast majority of the time. Where he gets exposed is when he has to defend in space, or is matched up against someone who is both fast and quick. Another drawback is that he has no bite (no, I dont' mean bicuspids like a previous poster). He rarely gets stuck in, and as a result invokes no fear into the opposition. He is best paired with another midfielder who is both fast and has bite. That's one reason why Carrick and Jenas worked so well together. Carrick stayed back allowing Jenas to surge forward, but when both were defending Jenas could cover more ground and was willing to get stuck in and be the enforcer. Like I said before the transfer, I'm a huge Carrick fan, but I just am not sure how he fits into the current United side. If you pair him with a true Dmid like Hargreaves (sad about his leg ... I wonder how Bayern feel now about beign so stubborn), Gattusa or Senna, United just wouldn't get enough offense out of their central midfielders IMHO. If you pair Carrick with a true attacking midfielder, like Scholes, then it will equate to hanging Carrick out to dry defensively, and he'll be exposed. His best partner would be a two-way player that is athletic and has some bite. That's why I think SAF is looking for a dynamic central midfielder to pair with Carrick. As a pure Dmid, Carrick can do the job, but he can't really live up to his potential or the price paid. Next summer I expect another starting central midfielder to be brought in. -Digital
I fail to see how John O'Shea is more adaquate as a dmid then Carrick. If I were spending that kind of cash on a player I would expect to be able to field him in my big games, which he should have been on Sunday.
Coming along nicely. Still has a lot to show though. Anybody who isnt busy want to make their own midterm progress report?
I've been very pleased with Carrick so far this season, as he's been everything I expected and more. What he isn't is an all action CM, which may have come in handy against Arsenal. But when United have the ball and are moving forward, Carrick is never the weak link.
Agree with VR. I was very harsh on him at season's beginning, but since then I've realized when actually watching the matches how much of an influence he can have. He is not box to box, but he can be very influential for us.
Carrick, while a decent player, lacks the quickness and tenacity that I would like to see him have... Hargreaves will be the perfect signing, if and when it happens..
Here goes. Michael Adrian Carrick Carrick has been with United less than a full season but he's already integrated himself nicely. While he's not an alpha dog type character or overly assertive, he is positive and doesn't shy away from the ball or from tough situations and I think he's resolved in my mind the biggest question mark against him - whether or not he was of the United type. He's fearless when it comes to attempting something he thinks he can pull off and he's made a valuable contribution to United this season. Anyone who doubts that Carrick's move has been positive lacks perspective. Delving deeper, we can certainly say that while Carrick has not had the huge creative impact some would have expected in terms of creating goals, he has excelled in some areas that most thought he'd fail in. End Product Going back to Carrick's creativity. He's had a direct assist on 3 goals, and he's scored one himself. That's not a huge amount but Scholes himself has assisted 1 goal and scored 4 so comparitively speaking Carrick hasn't been horrid for a CM in our side. Build Up This is an area in which we all expected Carrick to excell in. He's supposed to help move the ball smartly along in midfield and aid greatly in the transition from defence to attack. He's certainly played a part, but Scholes has done as much as he has in this respect and that's unusual for Scholesy. Carrick however HAS impacted positively in this regard but certainly not to the extent that we would have expected. Defense I said when he first came that he and Scholes could work together in a partnership against all but the top sides, virtually all of the prem save Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. Many disagreed but alas, that's just what's happened. This is only possible because Carrick is solid defensively. He's not Keane. He's not a full fledged DM and he's not the best ball winner down the field. However, he does a better than average job of sweeping up in front of the box and he's showed more grit than he ever has in his career. He's tackled well, not as often as we'd like but certainly enough to hold together our CM. Overview Carrick hasn't been a player worthy of his pricetag. Nope, not in half of a season. However, he's never once been the weak link in a team that is full of champions. He needs to weigh in with a couple more goals and maybe twice as many assists to be the player he can be @ United. That said, his performance has been more than satisfactory and our improved play in CM, our improved defensive record (by way of better possesion and other factors) as well as our free flowing attacking play are all a testament to that. No, Carrick isn't the player that makes us tick, he's not the most vital cog in the wheel or the player we turn to to bail us out of trouble. Michael Carrick is the type of player who'll turn in a 7 performance week in week out and every month or so he'll give you an 8. He does improve our team and he's become vital in the sense that to replace him for one week wouldn't be hard, but to replace him over the course of the season thus far would have been impossible (with someone already in our squad). Goals For next season Carrick must: add a bit more edge to his play make a few more contributions to scoring plays spend more time on the ball, drive us forward rather than move us along
If we do get Hargreaves, and our CM partnership is mainly Carrick + Hargreaves, then I think we'll see a more forward minded Carrick. I looked at his Gamelog history on Soccernet, and he's never scored more than 2 goals a season! His top assist year was 5! So while we can see he influences games quite a bit, in terms of statistics it doesn't show up. With Hargreaves in play, he may have the opportunity to get larger goal totals, but I don't expect Scholes-like numbers from him.