Dark Savante
31 Jul 2006, 02:21 PM
Let's summarize. The purchase thread is almost at an end and it is rather jumbled. Here we won't talk about his price or the value he is/isn't for the money spent. Let's look at the player and what he can and cannot offer us.
Pros.
- Carrick is a deep-lying playmaker for the amount of times people keep calling him a 'DM' I have felt like screaming. Carrick's expertise is in his passing. Short, long, through bodies, in front of onrushing players, the weight of ball he plays, the ability to put top spin on a lofted through ball. Carrick's passing is an attribute we are all taking for granted. This isn't average stuff, in the department of passing Carrick has no one in the PL you can say is better than him, outright. Forget stats, they tell you half of a story. Use your eyes and see/understand what he can do with the ball at his feet and runners moving in front of him. Carrick is the best passer the club will have had since Veron. And by that, I don't mean sideways or backwards passes (which clutter up passing stats considerably) I mean, his ability to play the ball forwards and into dangerous areas. A paragraph for a skill we should all try to fully grasp and appreciate.
- Carrick is a proven PL passer another point we should not be overlooking here. Carrick has shown he can play his full range of passes in the fastest league in the world. There is no doubt he can do it for us. Whereas I made an accommodating Riquelme thread and there is always that wait and see aspect to foreign players with a passing expertise coming to the PL and handling the high octane closing down and the decreased time to ‘see’ the field and make decisive and positive forward passes, this concern is non-existent with a product who knows no other style but the PL. This is a reason we may be prepared to pay more for him then we would have to for a foreign deep-lying playmaker with superior ability. Carrick removes more of the doubt a manager may have when bringing in a player expected to provide numerous penetrative passes throughout a season.
- He has proven he can play well against the top teams in the league. We don’t want a player who is going to bottle it when we need him the most. Some sublime talents tend to fall apart when the pressure is on. You pay the extra money for those talents who are bona fide in these situations – the more experience of high level, top intensity games, the more you should expect to pay. Carrick is wet behind the ears in this aspect compared to a Pirlo (for example) but the signs are point towards positive with the way he handles himself against the top teams in the league. He continues to play his natural game and even shows he has the confidence in his ability to try new things. An example of this I’m sure we all remember is his mazy dribble in the Arsenal game last term. Before that game who knew Carrick could actually dribble like that when the mood takes him?
- He’s freshly turned 25. Does this need explaining…?
- He gives us something truly different. Quality deep-lying playmakers are a rare breed, probably rarer then quality DM’s at this moment in time. With the arrival of Ballack there’s only 3 players in the league who can play the role how it is supposed to be played (Alonso, Ballack and Carrick) to a level where they have to be run down and shut out before they split your defence with a quality ball. Tactically this gives us so many ways to use Carrick. He’s our quarterback and with the way we can attack and orbit him, closing him down will be difficult for the opposition. You add Scholes to the mix in the same midfield and it becomes quite mouth-watering. You zone press Carrick and you free up Scholes, who is a quality passer in his own right. This is a double conundrum for any side that faces us. In terms of passing quality in midfield we are now par even with anyone (in terms of balance we aren’t there until we get a DM)
- Remember that game against Sunderland? Carrick is precisely the type of player to unlock a game like that. His natural talent is sitting deep and picking out passes in dense areas of the field, he has the accuracy to thread the pass that wins those kind of games. Credit to Fergie for identifying a player who addresses a specific weakness we have and sorting it out.
- Composure. This is something any deep-lying playmaker worth his weight provides to his team. He is the conduit to calm, superfluous play. Indeed, in some teams the DLP becomes so important that a team lives or dies by his performance, that should never happen to us with the character of players like Rooney, Ronaldo, Scholes and Rio, their egos would also never allow us to rely wholly on Carrick. What Carrick offers though, which none of the others have is the ability to slow a game down to a snails pace. Something we severely lacked last term. When you can slow the pace of a game down to what you want it to be you demoralise the opposition as well as tiring them out, you instil confidence in your own team and you give your own team the chance to have a breather mid game. When we played Milan in the CL they did this to us in the leg at OT, at times they held onto the ball for minutes at a time and it really lowered confidence and stamina in our side. Barcelona do it all the time and I think any team that thinks of itself as top bracket needs to have two tempos to their game. Ball retention has been missing from the team. TRUE ball retention, I mean, not one game in four where we string together an adequate number of passes. We have relied on the individual brilliance of Rooney, Ruud and Ronaldo for a long, long time. Our game has been high octane and we lose the ball to the opposition far too often. With composure in the midfield all of this changes. The team element is forced and the individual will (have to) learn to fit in. At the start of the season fans might complain if we slow games down, but after a while there should be an absolutely massive difference in the amount of passes strung and completed amongst our players. Saha is the only one from 5 (Carrick, Scholes, Ronaldo, Rooney) who cannot play snazzy one touch to the highest level, but his role will require more runs and movement and he is certainly good enough to not be the one who messes up a long string of passes. To me, this is another huge benefit in Carrick and the way he plays the game. He could deliver that quality to any team in the league, I’m grateful it’ll be with us.
- He is truly two-footed. Carrick has the rare ability to play any pass on either foot. Tactically, that is a nightmare to plan against. You can plan to close down channels to his right foot/side and nullify it, but when he can go the other way with his other foot he becomes a player who is extremely difficult to shut down and in a team like ours there really won’t be many times where the opposition can focus on any one player without leaving holes for others to exploit.
- He frees Scholes up to be an almost pure attacking midfielder. I’m going to assume we’re using a DM next term in a 3man midfield, either O’Shea (kill me) or a new buy. He will do the lion’s share of defensive work with Carrick contributing and Scholes tracking back whenever necessary. Primarily Scholes will be in the opposition half if this is the case. He will have an almost free reign to shoot, ghost and generally be a thorn in the oppositions side all game. If Scholes-Carrick and a decent DM play most games for us this season I would expect Scholes to reach double goal-scoring figures. The last time Scholes was free of defensive duties he hit 14 goals in a season. I think 10 is doable for him this term in a settled side.
- There is no Roy Keane to disrupt this DPL’s game. Carrick basically has our midfield now, for better or for worse he is the chief distributor of this team now. That means, Scholes should play further forward and not have to drop deep to control the play, Rio won’t have to point and click the midfield into offensive action, nor will he have to carry the ball forward and pass it himself because of the passing ineptitude of the CM’s in front of him. We’re basically giving Carrick the opportunity to make himself world class and an actual star in his own right, with no obstructions.
- I don’t know if this is a positive, but it had to be pointed out. Carrick is the only English DPL in the country who is anywhere near the quality of the foreign top brass in this department.
- His injury record is very good, he looks a cert to play 30+ games a season. He’s also very consistent, we can expect constant level of performance from him.
Cons.
- Carrick alone is not what we need. As a lone signing, he is questionable because under now circumstances would I want O’Shea in our starting line-up next season and as Scholes is an almost dead cert starter, we have to be looking at a 4-3-3 whether we get a new DM in or start with O’Shea ( :( ) I think we all assume a DM is coming however, so this con is negated.
- He does not score goals. His career best is 2 in 30something games. This in itself isn’t a problem, but, it means that he either contributes hugely with assists or the killer pass or the guys in attack as a unit will have to make up for his deficiency in this department.
- I wonder about Carrick’s stamina levels. He is a lazy player, but that’s his style. Can he go box-to-box? Can he handle games where we are on the back foot and he has to do a lot of running?
- He has no CL experience and is not a starting international player. I shouldn’t think he’ll struggle in the CL, but this is one of the things managers pay a premium to get in a player. A proven CL performer is worth his weight in gold, Carrick is an unknown quantity at this level of the game. He has never faced a great foreign side. His biggest international game to date was coming on against lowly Ecuador in the WC. That is not the same as playing against AC Milan, Bayern, RM or Barca all of whom are perfectly comfortable against DPL’s and have the game to stifle them. That will be a huge level-up for Carrick. Let’s see if he has what it takes in these games.
- Carrick adds no steel to the midfield. Ties in with the DM issue, in terms of physical intimidation and aggression Carrick is a 4 or 5 where your Gattuso’s and Diarra’s are 9’s and 10’s. For a DPL aggression isn’t important, but it’s nice to have one who can get stuck in (anyone remember Effenberg in his pomp?) for that little bit extra oomph!
- He's wearing the #16 shirt for us. Is that a gift or a curse?
Yep, that's what my last hour involved, two write-ups for you lot. Shakes head.
Pros.
- Carrick is a deep-lying playmaker for the amount of times people keep calling him a 'DM' I have felt like screaming. Carrick's expertise is in his passing. Short, long, through bodies, in front of onrushing players, the weight of ball he plays, the ability to put top spin on a lofted through ball. Carrick's passing is an attribute we are all taking for granted. This isn't average stuff, in the department of passing Carrick has no one in the PL you can say is better than him, outright. Forget stats, they tell you half of a story. Use your eyes and see/understand what he can do with the ball at his feet and runners moving in front of him. Carrick is the best passer the club will have had since Veron. And by that, I don't mean sideways or backwards passes (which clutter up passing stats considerably) I mean, his ability to play the ball forwards and into dangerous areas. A paragraph for a skill we should all try to fully grasp and appreciate.
- Carrick is a proven PL passer another point we should not be overlooking here. Carrick has shown he can play his full range of passes in the fastest league in the world. There is no doubt he can do it for us. Whereas I made an accommodating Riquelme thread and there is always that wait and see aspect to foreign players with a passing expertise coming to the PL and handling the high octane closing down and the decreased time to ‘see’ the field and make decisive and positive forward passes, this concern is non-existent with a product who knows no other style but the PL. This is a reason we may be prepared to pay more for him then we would have to for a foreign deep-lying playmaker with superior ability. Carrick removes more of the doubt a manager may have when bringing in a player expected to provide numerous penetrative passes throughout a season.
- He has proven he can play well against the top teams in the league. We don’t want a player who is going to bottle it when we need him the most. Some sublime talents tend to fall apart when the pressure is on. You pay the extra money for those talents who are bona fide in these situations – the more experience of high level, top intensity games, the more you should expect to pay. Carrick is wet behind the ears in this aspect compared to a Pirlo (for example) but the signs are point towards positive with the way he handles himself against the top teams in the league. He continues to play his natural game and even shows he has the confidence in his ability to try new things. An example of this I’m sure we all remember is his mazy dribble in the Arsenal game last term. Before that game who knew Carrick could actually dribble like that when the mood takes him?
- He’s freshly turned 25. Does this need explaining…?
- He gives us something truly different. Quality deep-lying playmakers are a rare breed, probably rarer then quality DM’s at this moment in time. With the arrival of Ballack there’s only 3 players in the league who can play the role how it is supposed to be played (Alonso, Ballack and Carrick) to a level where they have to be run down and shut out before they split your defence with a quality ball. Tactically this gives us so many ways to use Carrick. He’s our quarterback and with the way we can attack and orbit him, closing him down will be difficult for the opposition. You add Scholes to the mix in the same midfield and it becomes quite mouth-watering. You zone press Carrick and you free up Scholes, who is a quality passer in his own right. This is a double conundrum for any side that faces us. In terms of passing quality in midfield we are now par even with anyone (in terms of balance we aren’t there until we get a DM)
- Remember that game against Sunderland? Carrick is precisely the type of player to unlock a game like that. His natural talent is sitting deep and picking out passes in dense areas of the field, he has the accuracy to thread the pass that wins those kind of games. Credit to Fergie for identifying a player who addresses a specific weakness we have and sorting it out.
- Composure. This is something any deep-lying playmaker worth his weight provides to his team. He is the conduit to calm, superfluous play. Indeed, in some teams the DLP becomes so important that a team lives or dies by his performance, that should never happen to us with the character of players like Rooney, Ronaldo, Scholes and Rio, their egos would also never allow us to rely wholly on Carrick. What Carrick offers though, which none of the others have is the ability to slow a game down to a snails pace. Something we severely lacked last term. When you can slow the pace of a game down to what you want it to be you demoralise the opposition as well as tiring them out, you instil confidence in your own team and you give your own team the chance to have a breather mid game. When we played Milan in the CL they did this to us in the leg at OT, at times they held onto the ball for minutes at a time and it really lowered confidence and stamina in our side. Barcelona do it all the time and I think any team that thinks of itself as top bracket needs to have two tempos to their game. Ball retention has been missing from the team. TRUE ball retention, I mean, not one game in four where we string together an adequate number of passes. We have relied on the individual brilliance of Rooney, Ruud and Ronaldo for a long, long time. Our game has been high octane and we lose the ball to the opposition far too often. With composure in the midfield all of this changes. The team element is forced and the individual will (have to) learn to fit in. At the start of the season fans might complain if we slow games down, but after a while there should be an absolutely massive difference in the amount of passes strung and completed amongst our players. Saha is the only one from 5 (Carrick, Scholes, Ronaldo, Rooney) who cannot play snazzy one touch to the highest level, but his role will require more runs and movement and he is certainly good enough to not be the one who messes up a long string of passes. To me, this is another huge benefit in Carrick and the way he plays the game. He could deliver that quality to any team in the league, I’m grateful it’ll be with us.
- He is truly two-footed. Carrick has the rare ability to play any pass on either foot. Tactically, that is a nightmare to plan against. You can plan to close down channels to his right foot/side and nullify it, but when he can go the other way with his other foot he becomes a player who is extremely difficult to shut down and in a team like ours there really won’t be many times where the opposition can focus on any one player without leaving holes for others to exploit.
- He frees Scholes up to be an almost pure attacking midfielder. I’m going to assume we’re using a DM next term in a 3man midfield, either O’Shea (kill me) or a new buy. He will do the lion’s share of defensive work with Carrick contributing and Scholes tracking back whenever necessary. Primarily Scholes will be in the opposition half if this is the case. He will have an almost free reign to shoot, ghost and generally be a thorn in the oppositions side all game. If Scholes-Carrick and a decent DM play most games for us this season I would expect Scholes to reach double goal-scoring figures. The last time Scholes was free of defensive duties he hit 14 goals in a season. I think 10 is doable for him this term in a settled side.
- There is no Roy Keane to disrupt this DPL’s game. Carrick basically has our midfield now, for better or for worse he is the chief distributor of this team now. That means, Scholes should play further forward and not have to drop deep to control the play, Rio won’t have to point and click the midfield into offensive action, nor will he have to carry the ball forward and pass it himself because of the passing ineptitude of the CM’s in front of him. We’re basically giving Carrick the opportunity to make himself world class and an actual star in his own right, with no obstructions.
- I don’t know if this is a positive, but it had to be pointed out. Carrick is the only English DPL in the country who is anywhere near the quality of the foreign top brass in this department.
- His injury record is very good, he looks a cert to play 30+ games a season. He’s also very consistent, we can expect constant level of performance from him.
Cons.
- Carrick alone is not what we need. As a lone signing, he is questionable because under now circumstances would I want O’Shea in our starting line-up next season and as Scholes is an almost dead cert starter, we have to be looking at a 4-3-3 whether we get a new DM in or start with O’Shea ( :( ) I think we all assume a DM is coming however, so this con is negated.
- He does not score goals. His career best is 2 in 30something games. This in itself isn’t a problem, but, it means that he either contributes hugely with assists or the killer pass or the guys in attack as a unit will have to make up for his deficiency in this department.
- I wonder about Carrick’s stamina levels. He is a lazy player, but that’s his style. Can he go box-to-box? Can he handle games where we are on the back foot and he has to do a lot of running?
- He has no CL experience and is not a starting international player. I shouldn’t think he’ll struggle in the CL, but this is one of the things managers pay a premium to get in a player. A proven CL performer is worth his weight in gold, Carrick is an unknown quantity at this level of the game. He has never faced a great foreign side. His biggest international game to date was coming on against lowly Ecuador in the WC. That is not the same as playing against AC Milan, Bayern, RM or Barca all of whom are perfectly comfortable against DPL’s and have the game to stifle them. That will be a huge level-up for Carrick. Let’s see if he has what it takes in these games.
- Carrick adds no steel to the midfield. Ties in with the DM issue, in terms of physical intimidation and aggression Carrick is a 4 or 5 where your Gattuso’s and Diarra’s are 9’s and 10’s. For a DPL aggression isn’t important, but it’s nice to have one who can get stuck in (anyone remember Effenberg in his pomp?) for that little bit extra oomph!
- He's wearing the #16 shirt for us. Is that a gift or a curse?
Yep, that's what my last hour involved, two write-ups for you lot. Shakes head.