Alas poor Carrick...forsooth, he's quite good now!

Sir A1ex

I worry about the effect of that match on both Carrick and Berba. Both players who have come in for a lot of stick, and overcome it, but will have taken a blow to their confidence there...

Aint gota Kalou

He started off decently but after his mistake he sort of lost his way.

Whenever he plays with Scholes I don't think he imposes himself enough, he knows Scholes is Scholes so just sort of looks for him as a plan A instead of trying to dominate himself.

Hope he shrugs it off quickly as he's been great lately.

evra

Read my post again you idiot, I just praised his performances against Chelsea.

Shimo

Only caught the game from the 70th minute on and saw the highlight of the goal - was a real retarded moment from Carrick and from what I saw was way off on his passes afterwards. But, he's been in good form. Bright side for me is that he won't pair up with Scholes soon - it's a combo that just asks for the other team have free reign in midfield since we can't press them in the middle efficiently.

Hope Carrick shakes it off - we are definitely going to need him for the run in. Pair with Ando or Giggs and will be just fine.`

elmo

Apart from the mistake which led to the goal, thought he played pretty well. He and Scholes are not suitable to be played together any longer though, Scholes lacks the legs to go further upfield and Carrick prefers to do his work lower. His game immediately improved when Anderson was brought on after Scholes got sent off.

Anderson15

Am i the only one that thinks he was one of our better players?

SharkyMcShark

I concur with you

Commadus

I did you cock. You were too busy trying to slag all the team off so you could go wank yourself over your beloved player. The team as a whole and Carrick individually did not play bad even after the error.

elmo

Nope. I honestly think that if we had won this game, everyone will be hailing Carrick's return to form, but he made a mistake which led to a goal and suddenly everyone's judgement is screwed.

Commadus

Carrick whenever he has to play with Scholes has to play deeper and keep an eye on Scholes position as sometimes with his aging legs he can get caught out of position. Carrick was excellent today even after the error - smart interceptions and plays.

The error was keeping Scholes in when we moved to 4-4-2 giving City a numerical advantage in midfield.

evra

I really haven't got the patience to converse with you.

Commadus

Nor I with you with your biased view of Carrick re the low expectations which was a sly dig at him. If you understood the role Carrick plays then you would realise he has not been as bad as you think or many make out.

Devilton

No he didn't. And I know this because We (united as a team) didn't dominate the first half. We dominated the first 15-20 minutes after which City regrouped and gave us a pretty good fight.

To say Carrick was in control even in the first half is far fetched. He was decent in the first half, and poor in the second. Lets at least be honest about that.

MrMarcello

I really hope this doesn't have a knock-on effect for him the rest of the season. The club needs him at his best.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

I thought he made one bad error all game and d. It's Scholes who for me was mostly dire. Save for the first 15 mins of the game. All in all it wasn't our day.

Number7

Citys response in the first half lasted about 5 minutes, allbeit they created 3 chances in that 5 minutes. The rest belonged to Carrick and Scholes

Godfather

One bad error can cost you games though.
And it did today. Not the first time he bottles it in big games. Needs to grow some balls the lad as we despereatly need him in form in every game.

sammsky1

To be fair to him, whilst he should not make mistakes like that at this level, he was put under huge pressure by VDSs initial equally bad pass. SAF commented as much in his post match comments.

Likewise in those mad first 25 mins in the 2nd half leading unto scholes red card, it was not him alone who struggled. The whole team was off the pace. He is back on form and today was below par, accentuated by that panicked pass to Troure that led to their goal but I don't think he was awful.

Given scholes upcoming ban and the continued absence of Fletcher and Hargreaves, we are going to need Carrick at his best if we are to close out league no 19 and get past Shalke.

Do achieve both objectives, I'd say he is as important as VDS, Vidic, Nani and Rooney so we need to get right behind him with our full support and encouragement

Godfather

No he wasnt. OShea was but handled it brilliantly and showed Carrick to calm down as he had enough time on the ball. It was just shit from him and shouldnt happen on that stage, especially not in so important games.

B Cantona

The mistake was absolutely shocking. I was naturally pissed with him for it, sloppy shit in a game of such importance, especially when you've been on form recently

The genuinely disappointing thing is that he let his head go after it, and didn't respond like the best players do. Now I wonder if he's back in his shell for the rest of the campaign

Feeky_Magee

This "big game bottler" lark is a bit tiresome. He had fine games home and away to Barca in 2008 and in the final itself, he was our MOTM in the two legs against Chelsea this season. Excellent home and away to Arsenal in CL semi's 2009. Excellent most games against Arsenal in fact, was quality in December and in the 4-0 in the cup. Seems to be pretty much based on Bayern at OT last year and the CL final in 2009, where he actually wasn't that bad, just outplayed by the two finest midfielders on the planet. Wasn't helped by Anderson either.

Bad mistake today, was playing very well before it, lost a bit of confidence after. Hope it doesn't affect him for the run-in.

Godfather

He was absolutely at fault for the goals conceded against Bayern and also in the final the year before. But hey ho.
Anyway I was never mentioning he always bottled it, just that it's not unusual for him.

Feeky_Magee

Goals against Bayern? First one for sure (though not many midfielders would have tracked the run like that, but then he was as weak as fuck), but as far as I remember the second one he flung himself to try and block Robben's shot. Wouldn't say he was totally at fault for Barca's first in the final, he gave it away like players do several times in a game, his position means it's gonna be more dangerous when he does. Vidic and VDS could have done more I though.

sdb4884

Unforgivable moments by Scholes and Carrick today. Berbatov was shocking today also. Too many good players just choking on the big stage not good enough.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

He is wrong. It was just a bad error. At the end of bad play by the defence and VDs. It just wasn't our day.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

Then you don't remember him turning away just as Robben hit the ball...

About Barca. I agree that He didn't bottle it. He spent all game putting out deadly fires to no avail in the end. Which left him traumatised for ages.

Devilton

He didn't bottle it against Barca. You're right.

He just couldn't live with the movement and skill of Iniesta and Xavi. They basically passed and moved by him. Ghosting around him like he didn't exist...he was basically rendered obsolete by two midfielders who are a class apart.

To say he was putting out fires paints him out to be some sort of defensive hero. That wasn't the case at all. Carrick had the ball at times, but the Barca pressing is so constant, that he was rarely able to make a positive contribution. Barca basically didn't allow Carrick to breath, and when he didn't have the ball he was always running after it because the men who did have it were 5 yards past him.

He was traumatized because that game showed just the gulf in class between Barca's midfield and ours. And players know this better then anybody else.

I know it sounds harsh to put down your own player, but Carrick was owned that game and unfortunately it took him a long time to mentally recover from it. I wonder if the same thing might happen after this game (because although he wasn't alone in being at fault today - or against Barca). He was pretty average for most of the 90minutes today as well.

And Yaya and DeJong are no Xavi or Iniesta.

Don't get me wrong, Carrick is a good player, but people talk about him like he's world class -- and I often wonder if they know what world class means.

Feeky_Magee

Anderson was effectively non-existent, which left Carrick 2-on-1 against players who you don't want to be 2-on-2 against.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

Your memory is deceiving you mate. All game long Carrick and the defence were over worked stopping Barca through balls. It's because of their work and Van Der sar that we didnt swallow 5 Real style. It's in possession when Carrick was shit. Trying long ball that kept going out because he was being given little time on the ball. He wasnt the one being ghosted past. foir it has never been his game to chase after people. It was Giggs and Anderson who were. Carrck suffered badly that game because there was nada he could do to stop the wave after wave of Barca attacks. For eventually he like our defence got overwhelmed by their magic.


Carrick had the ball at times, but the Barca pressing is so constant, that he was rarely able to make a positive contribution. Barca because didn't allow Carrick to breath, and when he didn't have the ball he was always running after it because the men who did have it were 5 yards past him.

I'm most certainly not.

Chabon

Anderson broke his foot quite early in that game, leaving him a complete passenger and Barcelona very deliberately targeted Carrick, who they (quite rightly) saw as our main man in midfield. We should have seen it coming tbh, with the way Xavi was going on about him in the run up to the final.

For all of that, we were never really overwhelmed until we bizarrely ceded the midfield by switching to 4-4-2 at half time.

Wizard Keyaz

I have to agree with you, why Giggs never got a look in ahead of Scholes is a little baffling also, how can you have Park on with Valencia and Nani too, the formation didn't pay off to be honest.

MrMarcello

VDS has to share some of the blame. Normally the ball would have been booted sixty yards downfield but he scuffed this one and put his outfield players in a bad position. Carrick recovered to take possession from City only to gift it right back. It was a calamity of errors.

Egg - hatch - chick.

MrMarcello

Against Barca? Blame to be shared with Giggs who kept drifting in too far centrally and left too much space to Carrick's left. He was one man guarding the entire fort that night. Doesn't help he has no bite or grit and doesn't often assert his authority on a match.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

I bet Giggs was rested. & rightly so. He is needed more for the Newcastle game.

Brwned

You seriously believe that 'people' talk about him like that? Like what, 2 people?

I think the vast, vast, vast majority, even those who would call themselves Carrick fans, would agree that he's not world class. The only people who mention Carrick and world class in the same sentence are the ones complaining that he isn't. He's not expected to be. He never was going to be.

Feeky_Magee

I doubt Devilton could quote a single poster who even implied he was world class. I was going to point this out earlier, but he seemed so happy whilst he was inventing standpoints to argue against. It appears Johnno is rubbing off on people.

John_K

I thought Carrick played well both before and after the mistake that led to the goal.

He was one of our better players on the day.

MrMarcello

I dunno Freeky. I seem to recall some back-and-forth back around 2008 when a few were labeling Carrick world class while many said he was good but not great.

Alex

Yeah the mistake was so poor though, that you cant really give him much credit today though

John_K

Don't agree with that at all. Yes he made a mistake but it's a bit harsh to say you can't give him credit for the way he played the rest of the game.

To be fair it's hardly his fault we lost the game as there were alot of other players who made mistakes, yet it's not entirely their fault either. We lost today as a team because we played well under what we are capable of.

On another day that mistake by Carrick, or those glaring misses by Berbatov wouldn't have been so crucial to the result because we might have pegged it back and eventually won the game anyway. Just didn't happen today.