I’ll always remember that brief period where Carrick was injured and we started the season with Ando and Cleverley and they were awesome. Kinda poor holding midfield but when they went forward it was awesome. Quickly Ando got injured and it never happened again.
Carrick wasn't injured. He was dropped. He was taken off at HT in the Community Shield vs City and United turned it around with Anderson and Cleverley in midfield. They then started the season superbly well.
That was the season Jones and Smalling joined and it was a really exciting team. United historically had most of their attacking penetration from the wings but Ando/Cleverley added a new dimension with a threat breaking from midfield through the middle. The start of that season United were hammering teams and ran up some huge scores playing some great football.
I think Cleverley getting injured by a Kevin Davies lunge at Bolton broke it up initially and then Anderson was injured soon after.
Vidic missed a lot of games that season even before he did his knee in Basel. His absence made it harder to go back to the Anderson/Cleverley combination because they needed more midfield protection when Vidic wasn't there. The 6-1 vs City showed what a shambles they were without him.
It reminded me of Veron struggling to settle at United the season Stam left. When you have a shaky defence, it necessitates more defensive balance in midfield and doesn't allow creative players to operate centrally.
Back on topic. I loved Ando. Great talent who had injury issues at really key points of his United career. He looked an outstanding talent at the time of his first knee injury. He never really got a consistent run of games after.