The odds that Michael Carrick would become a United superstar were always stacked against him, after the club was forced to pay out a massive £18.6 million for him. He was a good player and had shown himself as worthy of attention at Spurs, but was he worth £18.6 million? Never.
Regardless, with Keane gone, United needed to find someone to come in and play alongside Paul Scholes. Whilst the likes of Fletcher and O’Shea were decent enough as squad players, they were no Roy Keane, and if we were to show we were serious about winning the title, we needed to buy someone.
United fans’ ambition was naively high, thinking that we could land Gattuso or Hargreaves after our second place finish. We didn’t have the pulling power we used to have, so Carrick was as good as it would get for United. The press criticised the move, claiming what we already knew, that Carrick wasn’t worth the money we were paying, and questioned whether he was good enough for United.
As the season progressed, Carrick didn’t prove he was worth his price tag, which was inflated because of his nationality rather than anything to do with his ability, but he proved he was worthy of a place in our team. He was far better than anything else we had available to us, and although not setting the World alight, he did a job for us. He was consistently good, never peaking too high or playing too badly, and with him on hand, we won the title. Would we have won the title with Fletcher playing alongside Scholes? I wouldn’t bet on it.
At this point, let me make it clear then, that I am not one of these fans who has slagged Carrick off since his arrival. As long as we are able to acknowledge we had to pay more for him that he is worth, it is a lot easier to accept that he is a good enough player who has done a good enough job for us.
Now with Anderson and Hargreaves in the fold, Carrick has been relegated to the bench, when Anderson and Hargreaves are fit, and rightly so. His place on the bench isn’t really safe, considering when Scholes comes back, Sir Alex Ferguson is going to have some trouble picking our two central midfielders. I can only presume Anderson will be the one left on the bench then, with Carrick biding his time waiting for Scholes to retire, or for he himself to move on to another club.
For the time being, however, with no Scholes, and Hargreaves battling with injury/illness, Carrick has got his place in the midfield back. I was fairly critical of the decision to play Fletcher against West Ham, but now it appears as though he would have been a better option today, as Carrick was shockingly bad.
Everything Carrick could have got wrong, he did. He gave the ball away on practically every occasion he had it in his position. He let players run through him unchallenged, unable to show any kind of fight or determination to win the ball. He didn’t win a header all game, as time and again the keeper booted the ball in to his general direction, only for a Birmingham player to be first to it. I honestly don’t think he could have played worse today if he tried.
The worrying thing however was I can’t really fault Carrick’s commitment, he was trying, but he just couldn’t pull it off. He looked frustrated with himself every single time he gave the ball away, he looked frustrated every time the Birmingham players skipped past him in midfield, but there was nothing he could do about it. If I wasn’t feeling slightly wary of a Birmingham equaliser, I’d have felt sorry for the lad, but as it was, I could not contain my frustration. When the three substitutions were made and Carrick was still left on the field, I couldn’t believe it. Easily the worst performance we’ve seen from a United player this season and we had to endure it for ninety whole minutes!
Carrick looked as though he wanted the ground to swallow him up today, and for much of the game, I wished it would. Maybe he’s still feeling unwell, or maybe it was just a bad day at the office, but he’s going to have to pull his socks up if he wants to even get close to our bench!
Just how bad was Carrick today?
Man Utd News 24/7
Passing is the one thing Carrick is exceptionally good at because but when that doesn’t work out for him, he doesn’t contribute much else.He marks his man like he’s expected to do but lacks the pace and strength to win balls and make his presence felt. He’s a soft player which is fine because that’s what we expect from him; just look at how he played against Chelsea this season..outstanding. Maybe it’s because there’s no Scholes next to him, maybe it’s because of a loss of confidence but we know he can do better and hopefully he’ll start passing again..to our players
that article is spot on…. however i wouldn’t quite agree that carrick is an exceptional passer. he is quite good if a bit ponderous on the ball especially in a tight game. he does however usually fit well into the united defensive system of 4 across the back with the 2 central midfielders retreating until the other team loses the ball or the wingers decide to get the late train home.. this may because he is exceptional at interceptions. given the number of matches that united play, the limited time that scholes has left, his relative young age, the fact he is english and the unlikely fact anyone is going to pay 12m or more if he doesnt regress i would be very happy for him to stay on at united. on a side note however it is possible that carrick, defoe (just got an equaliser as i type), crouch, wright phillips and other english “fringe” players are not comanding dominant positions in their teams are hindering the progress of the english national team. they would be better off in the second tier english teams.
I agree with DoMundo! Maybe Carrcik lack sconfidence, and feels wierd playing next to more defensive players. Owen is more defensive, Anderson has briliant passes and skills, but is a great tackler and stays back very often, while Carrick is going forward. I think he is confused and worried about his role in the team. should he go forward or sit back. With Scholes in the team, he knew his role and did it quite well. But now…..I think we should see how he does next to Scholes before questioning his ability. But if he continues toperform like he does now, we should defo sell him or throw him away as garbage.
Yup carrick was bad today.I always thought of carrick as a decent player,someone who could do a job and had a terrific range of passing.But against birmingham today he was terrible.Even his passing(which last season was brilliant)was lacking.maybe its because he knows anderson has taken his place but I now feel its time for the mediocres to leave.fletcher,carrick,silvestre.
Carrick was awful today and it does look like he has now slipped to fourth in the midfield – after Anderson, Scholes, Hargreaves and just ahead of Fletcher, who at least still has “youthful promise” on his side. That said, Carrick was important last year, playing alongside Scholes. So, 18.6 million for a one-year stop-gap – that’s the price of success.
It would be foolhardy to sell Carrick or Brown in this transfer window because of disappionting performance and excessive demands, respectively. BUT, Michael has probably not got a long shelf-life at OT. He might not be surplus-to-requirements right now but his future doesn’t look bright. Indeed, it’s fair to say that he has regressed a lot this year.
What we don’t know is if Carrick is one of those guys who would rather be a member of a winning team or wants to play for a pretender, rather than accepting reduced playing-time at a contender. I think that we will get some insight into this issue in the summer when SAF restructures the team and probably brings Veloso in to compete for a midfield position alongside Anderson, who clearly is “the future”.
I think its a bit harsh on Carrick. I think its just a slump in form as before he got injured against Roma I thought he was one of our best players.
Will Comment on his performance today after I’ve seen it! I have been a fan of Carrick since he joined us, but can only remember a couple of great performances from him, against Roma last April where he scored 2 great goals and generally did really well, then that game was a one off where everything went the right way for us. Then against Chelsea this year he was first to every ball showing how well he can play when winning the ball back, that’s how I wish he’d play very week. As for his price tag, He is English so that is what you’d expect.. looking at Ferdinand, Rooney etc.. although they are fantastic it just shows how over priced English players are. Well, Ronaldo.. 13million for example.
I only we’d signed Owen Hargreaves earlier…
Agrred. Today was without doubt the most shocking performance Carrick has put in since arriving at Old Trafford. Everything he did was awul, and I couldn’t believe it when he wasn’t subbed. When I saw Hargreaves coming on I thought ‘Great’ the agony is over – but Carrick stayed on! Don’t know what Sir Alex was thinking, as Carrick’s poor passing in defense constantly put the back four under enormous pressure in the last 20 minutes or so.
Perhaps, as someone already noted, he was still feeling the after effects of the virus he picked up. If so let’s hope he gets over it soon.
Lastly, today’s effort in general was about as bad as I’ve seen United play in recent years and still manage to win. Sloppy, profligate and self-centered finishing by both Nani and Ronaldo, save for the goal assist. These kind of poor performances against the weaker teams will cost us if Sir Alex doesn’t pull the team together. I wonder how much of a psychological fallout there’s been from the party fiasco?
i think that carrick is important as alternative cover for our midfield. he brings different dimension to team. the one that is redundant is FLETCHER! what does he provide that any of the others do not? i cant believe SAF played him in the middle when we played west ham! what rubbish – he and hargreaves have hardly got games, and playing them both with neither controlling the midfield was absolutely terrible. we got killed in the midfield that night. i would say that at least carrick provides cover for our defense, passes out of danger, and is able with both feet! fletcher is only there cos he is scottish! pls! anyways, he is not fast, cant tackle, has no power, cant shoot what more need i say? i know he can pass well, but we already have those and more! drop fletcher pls!
If Carrick was bad, then what has Saha been lilke lately? Nothing short of abysmal !!!! Not only does he look confused and out of sorts, but he never gets into threatening positions any more, which is a sure sign that his entire game has gone to pot!! His link-up play is horrendous, he is too individualistic with no great skill base to justify it, his body language sucks and frankly, the problem at the moment is that he is not only unable to play but, in my book at least, unsellable!! What a great big problem he has turned out to be …………..
He had a very poor game but you’re conveniently over-looking the fact that he got up out of his sick-bed to play this game. He didn’t travel to West Ham becaused he had the same dose that kept Roo out. If you stopped to think about a reason for his poor display, it’s staring you in the face.
This season, as a whole, he hasn’t played as well as he did last season, to be fair, but it can’t be easy when he’s in and out of the team, with Hargreaves missing every second game through injury. Last season he was one of our best players and played in more games than anyone else, bar Ronaldo, so deserves huge credit in our league success.
By the way, with the week that’s in it, why wait until today to write a piece about a shocking display in central midfield? Poor as he was, Carrick’s sup-par performance was no worse than the dross served up by Hargreaves against the hammers. What’s his excuse?
Carrick is simply getting more and more useless.I think sometimes Fergie is just trying to make Carrick prove himself before he sells him.He was not shocking yesreday ,he was very very shocking.
Another player who is really beginning to frustrate me is Nani.Why does he whine so much, he decision making is poor .Yhen we have Giggs.That Bobby Charlton record is killing us.Not for the first time i celebrated when i saw him on the bench.He is not good enough to beat Bobbyies record
i think we are being too judgemental everyone has bad games and its up to us the fans to support the players who offer their services to our team regardless of form they still give it their all
keep going carrick were behind you
i think we are being too judgemental everyone has bad games and its up to us the fans to support the players who offer their services to our team regardless of form they just try still give it their all
keep going carrick were behind you
for every poor preformace we need a scapegoat..aginst west ham it was fletcher and now carrick…it is true that he has been going through a rough patch..his early season injury didnt help matters and he has been slowly coming back from it…and as mentioned above he was just coming back from illness…hell he played almost a quate of a game against Roma in the Cl with a broken arm and held our midfeild together..i dont know if you have had a broken arm but thats super painfull together with physicallity of the game is no small matter…peope find it easier to excuse heagreaves and anderson who were the people supposed to preform but didnt but blame someone who was recalled directly from sickbed..hell he was chosen over a fit heageaves even with our find of the year anderson available but fergie chose carrick..united can manage without heagreaves or fletcher but we cant with carrick…who was the second main reason(first being ronaldo) we won the league last season
I am a spurs fan, i have always said if a team does not press carrick he will dictate a game very well, but as soon as the opposition plays a high tempo pressing game against him he is lost, give time and space his passing is lovely, under constant pressure, he is woeful, and because he sits so deep he leavea a massive hole in the center of the park
This is why games against, the balckburns, birminghams, west ham he looks so crap, but against techincal teams like arsenal, chelsea, etc he looks better
i cant agree more with u RMJ,Carrick was our best player this season against chelsea and Roma,and then he got this injury pls guys dont be harsh on him.
There’s no doubting Carrick was poor today. His strengths are the ability to spot a pass, long or short, and distribute accordingly. A lot of United’s best work last season came from us breaking up play in our own half and Carrick distributing the ball, effectively and efficently,usually to Ronnie’s feet. To use a classic cliche he ” has a picture of the play” in his mind before it happens . However, his actual distribution particulary in relation to his long passing game is good but, in my opinion, not great. I feel that Anderson will prove to be a much more accomplished passer, both long and short, in the very recent future.
To state that Carrick has only had two outstanding games for us is a worthy point,but for the wrong reasons. Carrick does not possess, or rather does not have the confindence/character to exhibit, the attributes by which most fans determine a player to have been “outstanding.” He intercepts rather than tackles. He rarely runs with the ball, and scores infrequently. Although in fairness he scored last season a lot more than Anderson looks like scoring this season. The strange thing is i feel that Carrick could be “outstanding” or a least very good but doesn’t have the confidence to dominate games, particulary offensively. He can run with the ball, granted not at pace like Anderson, but is comfortable enough in possession to break from his centre midfield berth with a bit more regularity and verve.
The game at home against Everton last season was a case in point. With Scholes rested, Carrick had an opportunity to dominate and shape the game, like the anglo-Pirlo fergie had been comparing him to. What actually happenend was he was deferring to John O’pie when it came to making the play, and picking up the ball from the back four. Maybe he doesn’t have the mentality/character to stay at United? Personally though i’d like him to stay.
On an unrelated topic Fergie been having his annual pop at us. I sit in North stand lower and it was/is very quiet. However it is no worse than every other premier league ground. The reasons for the lack of atmostphere in football grounds is a natural reticence by most people to leave behind the normol customs and convention of modern life and sing loudly and passionately. This tendency used to be offset by the fact the in the past people could stand and for whatever reason this encouraged a group/gang mentality. Now, because of factors beyond our control, we sit down and passively consume our football like any other modern “leisure activity.” Also to hear Fergie bemoaning the exisistence of day trippers whilst remaining steadfastly loyal to the Gimps reigme is pretty sad. Such specious and clumsy comments meerly give ammunition to the myth makers in the modern media Fergie professes to despise. Maybe if such comments continue we should start making our own ill judged comments about that fucking horse.
Is it just me who is fixated on Saha? Why has no one commented? Or is it that many United fans prefer to keep their heads buried in the sand when it comes to discussing him? Personally I thin k he is the worst ever in terms of attitude – the total antithesis of a united player!! Will we ever, ever see the back of him? He is actually worse than Rio, which is saying something!!!!!!!
Carrick is the new Fetcher
about saha..i think after his injury he has lost all his pace and speed…and that is pulling down his effectiveness
Can I just ask how the money we paid for Carrick is at all relevant?
As a club, we are not short on money. There is no player that is available for transfer and wanted to join Manchester United that we could not afford. The fact that we identified a player who would add quality to our squad and then got him is all the thought that is required on the subject, regardless of the fact he cost £18.6m or £2m.
Everyone bangs on about money all the time, but why does that matter to us? I don’t for one second think that fans of Italian clubs or Spanish clubs care how much a player in their squad cost as long as they got him.
It’s the same with players’ wages. The players are paid huge amounts, yes, but at the same time it is because of them that the club is successful and makes more money. Everything is a business and whether you like it or not, you must accept it.
Gopher it’s because all though we have lots of money, if we throw it around wastefully how do we expect to pay back our debts? Carrick was ridiculously overpriced and although it’s not his fault it increases the hate towards Carrick, as we all know he was just a second choice buy, when we couldn’t get Hargreaves we got him instead. About Saha, although he seems terribly lazy and out of sorts at the moment, why doubt his goalscoring ability when we have seen him come back from so many injuries just as good as he was before them, he hasn’t lost his seed, he hasn’t lost his fantastic ability to get involved in the build-up and he hasn’t lost the ability to score, the only thing it seems he may have lost is the hunger to do his best. It’s frustrating watching him put in 80% maybe 85% effort but I still think he’s a vital part of our team, since he isn’t similar to anyone else in our team.
He won the title in his first year and provides a midfield option more in keeping with a modern game where Keane would spend most of his time in the stands suspended, he goes through form like anyone else, yes we now have better in the squad but yet again we see more miserable MU fans which I am myself acting like spoilt arm chair fans. Get over yourselves the boys contribution has been excellent screw the money none of them are worth todays prices. Spoilt spoilt spoilt, all of you.
Sorry Conor but I think it is people like you who over indulge the likes of Saha, contributing towards the shitty attitude he now displays; no disrespect to you intended. Whether you like to admit it or not – but far more importantly, whether Saha realises it at all – it is against the Bayern Munichs, A C Milans and Real Madrids of this world that every member of United’s team demonstrates his worth. Sorry, but I simply dont trust him to turn up on days when it matters. Can you name the last time he scored a really “big” goal for us? A goal when it really mattered? A goal that demonstrated his charecter? Yet he is so eloquent in blathering-on on MUTV, it is simply unreal. For me he should be sold, and the sooner the better!! But who would buy him? THAT is the real problem.
John – there aren’t masses of goals but he has scored them. I think there’d be several teams more than happy to take him off our hands as well.
2006-2007 vs Benfica and Chelsea
2005-2006 vs all the teams in the League Cup (all of them in the Premiership) which won us our only piece of silverware
2003-2004 vs Arsenal four minutes from time which saved us from defeat at Highbury
Thanks Scott. Okay; how about his total nonchalance in hitting the penalty against Celtic in 2005? How about his total disappearance against Milan over both Legs in the CL the previous year? How about his inability to play a properly weighted, simple square pass to bring others into play? How about his tendency to dribble when he so obviously can’t? How about his insistence of running like a headless bull in a china shop, pell mell at centre halves? And how about admitting that he is now paying the price, psychologically, for talking himself up into the quality forward he so evidently is not? Louis Saha has turned out to be a very, very poor buy and an immensely costly one. To me, a United centre forward is a player who should walk on water, in the rich tradition we have enjoyed at this club. Do you not realise that in 1999, for instance, we had four – yes four – forwards who were each comfortable in the No.9 role AND could be depended upon? And need I mention Hughes, or even Jordan or Pearson for that matter? So sorry, but for me Saha just does not cut it, full stop. And all this talk of him being “different” from the rest of our players, so what? I ask. I have ten toes, as no doubt has he, and each is different. What’s the point of the argument? I simply do not see it.