Carrick

Richter

Is he more important than people think?

MUFCgal

Yes of course he's a big loss, he's a very important player to the team but we've people there who should step up to the plate and they didn't do that tonight unfortunately. Aw well, onwards and upwards

FlawlessThaw

Will probably get lambasted for it but at times he's more important than Scholes. Only because I feel Anderson can step up for the latter's role.

Scholesy

People outside of Utd,yes, however I think some are changing their minds...

Tonight, it was because it is impossible to play with Scholes and Anderson in a 2 man midfield.

Scholesy

Have you saw the way Scholes keeps the ball compared to Anderson?

Red442

I think the caf know how important he is already. Underrated outside of Utd though.

Richter

He's the only United central midfielder that makes it possible for us to play with only 2 central midfielders if that makes any sense at all.

FlawlessThaw

Scholes had yet another great game for us, and would have been our man of the match if not for Tevez. But like I said, I feel we can just about cope with Scholes because of Anderson.

Scholesgoals

in every midfield combo there should be carrick. he complements them all well. still prefer carrick/scholes to all the others though. I'm actually starting to think about having anderson on the left you know.

or maybe (quite obviously post scholes)

Tevez striker Rooney

Anderson carrick hargreaves/fletcher

anyway, im taking it too far now.

Lot 49

He was our best midfielder last season.

Someone on here made a thread about how well the team performed with Carrick and without him over a couple of months period last year and it was a huge difference.

Kelvin

will he be back for the scouser game?

Floyd

He makes us tick.

VERY important player. Very good defensively as well.

For me our best midfielder.

Now Mike, please grow a pair and you'd be sensational.

Floyd

He might. I pray to God he's back.

With he and Scholes in midfield we could pass them to death, like we did at OT.

Dippersripper

Really missed him today

KanieKaned

Carrick is fucking top notch and alot of people fail to see this, we aint the same team without his passing and ability to cut out danger before it gets too serious alongside the genius that is "The Ginger Ninja"

Anderson for all his hard work and ability is still learning the trade and is more suited to a 3 msn midfield.

Credit to Zenit though they can play the beautiful game. Looking forward to watching their Champions League Group.....

Mozza

I'm going to nick a description from Rugby, what Carrick gives us is territorial advantage, essentially we stay higher up the pitch with him in the side. It helps the forward line and Scholes immensely, I don't think our current strikers can function at all without that, our team would rarely get up in time to support them without it

Alex

He always will be suited to a 3 man midfield that he can spearhead.


Carrick is awesome though, he does make United tick and can be great. Scholes is still the greater player, because he can Still do things, Carrick never will be able to do. Hargreaves is also a great player in his own right who brings a lot to the game as. United are clearly set in midfield atm

Bape

Agree with all of that, except Scholesy is still for me far and away our best midfielder.

Raven_Blade

He has become part of our engine room in midfield along with Scholes. We miss his accuracy of passes and vision to create openings. Lets also not forget how good he is defensively. We lacked that quality against Zenit and it cost us big time. Carrick may have helped to protect our back 4 because we were left exposed on far too many occasions. His return cannot come soon enough.

Psmith

He is very important. But I thought we missed ronaldo the most today.

Kiwi Red

Floyd and Bape I tend to agree.

Scholes is still our best midfielder, but increasingly more Carrick is the one taking over as the player who makes us tick and dictates our games.

He's a massive loss to us

Instant Karma

He is less important than people think.

Suresh

You're like a dog with a bone with this, aren't you.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

No. He is as important as everyone thinks. So is Hargreaves. You can't play strong opponents without a holding midfielder.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

Agreed. We really lacked goal threat and balance on the flanks

Instant Karma

The player who scored 42 goals last season is injured
Rooney is not in form
Tevez has played 1 match
Anderson is just back from the Olympics and hasn't had much rest
Giggs is injured and Nani hasn't played for a while

We are struggling to finish chances because Carrick is missing ?

MadDogg

Yes.

Carrick is the one who keeps our game flowing and gels our team together. Occasionally Scholes can do it by himself (like last week against Portsmouth), but normally when Carrick isn't playing our entire team becomes much more about individuals trying to force their way through the opposition, rather than the slick movement and probing that is part of our game with Carrick.

Scholes has better vision with his passes, but Carrick is more important to us. He is our most complete midfielder.

I doubt Zenit would have scored that second goal if Carrick was on the field. He would've positioned himself in such a way he would have slowed down the attack, giving our other players time to get back and make extra numbers. That is something he is brilliant at that people don't seem to notice - it's not so much that he jumps in and wins the ball back himself, it's that he slows down the move and gives our other players time to get into position, breaking up the attacking move. It's why he works so brilliantly with Hargreaves or Fletcher in a 4231.

Suresh

Huh? I'd take a wild guess and say this thread is about the way we play and/or create chances as opposed to finishing them.

And stop using the rolleyes smiley, ffs. It doen't make your post any better.

MadDogg

No. We were struggling to dictate the tempo of the match, and finding it hard to bring the ball out of the defence becase Carrick was missing.

Denis' cuff

definitely more important than a lot of people think

watch the difference when he returns

Instant Karma

The tempo in our last league game was fantastic and we had about 65% of the possession.

Ronaldo is our primary outlet when we need to quickly bring the ball out of defence. Our attack now lacks genuine pace allowing the opposition defence to play higher up the pitch and our midfielders have lesser space. Carrick wouldn't have made much difference.

Mozza