Was he the only signing in 2006? And then 3 league titles in a row with 2 CL finals in 2008+2009...he was a massive signing.
Carrick is one of Man United, England's most underrated players ever
- Thread starter Aboutreika18
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Yep.
He was our only signing that summer and Chelsea (who walked the league the prior year), brought in Ballack, Shevchenko, Ashley Cole and Kalou.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
I really liked them in 2008 with Torres and Villa up front, but not so much under Del Bosque. He was too defensive to enjoy watching it.
I guess that is not Xavi and Iniestas fault though. I think they won 1-0 in every playoff game in 2010.
It is hard to compare players since playing in a great side makes it easier. Scholes and Carrick suffered at England since they lacked a good manager
and overall squad quality around them. Xavi and Pirlo have played for great sides, but you can also say they made them even better.
Phenomenal nerve and belief in his players that from Fergie
Did he not come with Park and VDS? Or were they a different summer?
Both in 2005.
Good squad player
This thread is evidence enough that he is still criminally underrated
This thread is evidence enough that he is still criminally overrated
Squad player? Come on... Carrick was one of the best CMs in England during the period he was at United. I would personally say that Carrick is one of the 3 best holding midfield players of his generation in the EPL
Noone has said he is the GOAT, but he is top 3 at least.
I don't know, I never personally rated him other than a good squad player, I have nothing against him but I feel his best period came due to playing with world-class players all around him pretty much and not him being exceptionally good...
Well there are people who think he's on par with Xavi, Busquets and Pirlo... But yeah, definitely top 3 midfielder 2010-2015. Up there with Herrera and Fellaini.
United have not been blessed with midfielders and that's the only thing this thread proves really.
We had the best team in the world for a period and Carrick was at the center of it.
Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I disagree but that does not make you wrong
You just look at that video and see how much we have changed. That team was picked up professionalism and player who wanted to play for the club
He's underrated. Carrick was a cracking player but he had weaknesses. I know people will take me up on this but he seemed to struggled mightily against a press because he was relatively immobile and it occasionally held him back in Europe. Maybe we just weren't organised enough
I never really warmed to Carrick , you have to ask yourself would he improve todays first eleven ?
100%. He would lift our midfield a lot.
He was first choice pretty much throughout.
He was a part of good functioning team under one of the greatest managers of all time, surrounded by quality players too. Also part of midfield crushed twice by Barca (which is no shame but you get the point).
He was a really good player, who pretty much always delivered the same level of performance. That's what was special about Carrick. His peak level was nowhere close to top players like those I mentioned.
Not to be completely pedantic but this isn’t strictly true. I can only really explain with numbers...If an 8/10 player gets called a 6/10 player, then everyone says “he’s underrated,” but mean that he should be considered a 7/10 instead, that would be a case where everyone was calling someone underrated while underrating themselves
The thread is evidence enough that he is rated correctly, overall.
Come on now
Well sure, but you can say the same about most players. Carrick was key to make us tick. Although we had such a strong squad that we could win with anyone being missing really.
If Ronaldo was out we had Giggs and Nani. If no Carrick we had Fletcher, Scholes and Anderson. If no Rooney we had Tevez.
Didn't Barca as an example get smashed by Bayern after Pep left even bigger than them beating us?
Over 300 games for a team that reached 3 CL finals in 4 years and was 3 points away from winning 7 leagues in a row.
The definition of a squad player.
The definition of a squad player.
For United midfielders over time he is probably top 3 though. Him and Scholes are the best since PL started if you count Giggs as a winger.
I can't judge midfielders before that, but given the record we have had under him he probably deserve to be top 3 over our full history.
I remember posters saying all he did was pass back or sideways.
Then detailed stats came out and showed he literally had one of the highest forward pass rates in Europe!
Look how many away champions league wins he was apart of. He was immense at the highest of stages.
feck Capello he was an embarrassment for England. Not picking Carrick and guess who he thought would be a good striking partner for a half fit Rooney - HESKEY.
Then detailed stats came out and showed he literally had one of the highest forward pass rates in Europe!
Look how many away champions league wins he was apart of. He was immense at the highest of stages.
feck Capello he was an embarrassment for England. Not picking Carrick and guess who he thought would be a good striking partner for a half fit Rooney - HESKEY.
I remember the ridicule for the price paid for him. Didn't turn out so bad in the end.
Oh ok. That's more reasonable. I thought you meant midfielders in general.
That was my impression as well. I never thought our squad was even top 3 in the world really. SAF made it work though. I don't recall us having set first XI. Wes Brown assisted in CL final playing as fullback.
The reason I don't think of Carrick that high is because he was never the guy to pick us up when we were struggling to fight the midfield battle. I always thought we could do better with someone more press resistant and better in tight spaces. But that's history now. Nobody will take away medals from Carrick, he fully deserved that.
Yeah that is harder. Since many great legends I have never watched.
I think recently Modric, Kroos, Xavi, Iniesta, De Bruyne makes up the better players in midfield.
Carrick is a different type though so hard to compare.
I think Xabi Alonso and Carrick are pretty equal and Busquets too as deep defensive midfielders.
God yes. Playing him instead of Matic would improve is ten fold. Midfielder who controls our tempo and can also pass between the lines? Yes please!
The good thing with LVG was using Fellaini to help us beat the press. Thus if they had high press on Carrick we put it on Fellaini who headed it down to Young often.
He didn't use it much, but it worked brilliantly vs City in that 4-2 win.
He’s what this current side misses.
People who don’t rate him don’t have a clue.
People who don’t rate him don’t have a clue.
I thought Carrick was a better player at Spurs. He got forward a lot more.
I didn't think he was as good for us and was too cautious imo.
Good player overall but not quite the rolls royce for me that others we him as.
And I do think when pressured he was not good
I didn't think he was as good for us and was too cautious imo.
Good player overall but not quite the rolls royce for me that others we him as.
And I do think when pressured he was not good
I think people forget just how good Scholes was in 06/07 which was Carrick's first season; I think Carrick's contribution was good between 06-08 but nowhere near the major role he had in 12-13 where he really was our key midfielder and a huge part of Fergie's last year. He played very well for a spell under LVG too.
In terms of rating him alongside Keane, Scholes, Vieira, etc. I don't think his peak was quite up there though in terms of the very best premiership midfielders.
In terms of rating him alongside Keane, Scholes, Vieira, etc. I don't think his peak was quite up there though in terms of the very best premiership midfielders.
He was a good player, not a great one. When you think of the top midfielders that have played the game, he wouldnt be in most peoples top 40. In fact even at Utd over the last 30 years, Robson, Ince, Keane and Scholes were all easily better than him in CM.
He did indeed struggle but I don't think it was because were not organised enough. It is more to do with the way we set up which was never going to help midfielders from around the mid '00s. The likes of Xavi played in systems and tactical setups that relied so heavily on overloading the midfield and prioritizing possession through constantly providing multiple options to whoever has the ball. They built and moved the ball from the back patiently. We, on the other hand, were looking for quick transitions where we required our midfielders to be a quick bridge between defense and attack. It is why, I remember, at the time we were urged to sign higher profile of players in midfield whereas Fergie seemed to ignore all of that in favor for more potency up front.
It is a bit like comparing defenders who play in higher lines versus ones who play in deeper lines and benefit from the help they get from their full backs and less space in behind to defend. I think Scholes "suffered" from the same setup when it comes to standing up individually. The only midfielder I can think of who could dominate midfields in big games despite not playing in a highly structured positional oriented system is Luka Modric. That is not to say that Carrick or Scholes would have been as good as Xavi or the likes, but it is simply too difficult to compare roles with such varying levels of requirements and assistance.
He was an absolutely brilliant midfielder, some of the comparisons with Keane, Robson and Ince etc, these were very physical all action types of midfielders, and I not dissing that, Robbo is the legend of the lot for me, however Carrick, after a few seasons settling in, was able to achieve many if not all of the same positive overall outcomes for the team using a brilliant passing range and exceptional reading of the the game in a defensive sense while generally getting less injuries and red cards, he was defo underrated given the unspectacular way he went about his business but thinking back in his prime for us there were 3 or 4 seasons when the difference in the team with him out of it was glaring and watching him match after match make effortless interceptions without the need to go to ground and starting attacks was a joy to watch.