Carrick is the answer

eat_grass

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He's a consummate professional. I'll take that over what Pogba's offered the last two League games any day. Hell, I bet he'd even volunteer to play a more defensive mid-field role if he thought the team would benefit from it. Or striker. Or goalkeeper!
 

Eyepopper

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I remember a significant amount of people losing their shit because we paid £18m for him (was actually £14m rising to £18m).

Absolutely class player, but hes semi retired now, no way is he the answer, to anything.
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

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At this stage I'd use him as CB ahead of some of our options that hurt our build up and transitional play. Our players are having to drop so deep to make themselves available for Smalling.
 

Yagami

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In his prime, we were crying out to have someone next to him that could take us to the next level (and be a bit closer to Barca). Would that have been Pogba, if their careers had aligned a bit better?
I think we'd have the same problems as we do now. In his prime season (12/13) he was partnered with Cleverley the most who could cover the entire pitch which hugely benefited Carrick. Maybe we'd be a bit better off because I rate Carrick in his prime better than Matic who's great himself.
At this stage I'd use him as CB ahead of some of our options that hurt our build up and transitional play. Our players are having to drop so deep to make themselves available for Smalling.
I'd play Blind there before Carrick. In my opinion, Smalling and Blind has been our best CB partnership since Rio and Vidic (Bailly and Jones/Rojo have had good games together but never really had a big run in the team as a pairing) yet José - I believe - has never tried them once together. Not that I expected him to or really blamed him with Bailly's showings. However, with Bailly out, and with the amount of possession we tend to have against the lower teams, I don't see why it's not worth a shot as Blind has shown he's capable of playing there to a good standard over the course of a season.
 

MadDogg

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I'd actually be interested in seeing Carrick getting a run again in a three man midfield. See how it would go. He certainly wouldn't work in a 4231 anymore, but if we did truly change to a 433 it might still work out. It's not like he's completely lost his legs or anything. Sit in the midfield and control the team around, and when the opposition had the ball just use his fantastic positioning to cut off passing lanes. The ease which opponents pass the ball straight through our midfield is disgusting at times, and that's exactly what Carrick was always so good at slowing down.

The only issue might be that the rest of our players are quite bad at moving into space to receive the ball, and without those release passes the opposition might be able to press Carrick too easily.
 

devilish

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I agree with OP. Micheal Carrick show should replace the Paddy Crerand one.
 

bdspeedy

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Not Carrick but Herrera.

Herrera should be the one sitting as he's better than Matic at covering ground and winning the ball (plus he's capable of playing passes between the lines and decent under pressure), Matic should be the box to box because he's decent in the attacking 3rd and won't have to worry about covering the whole of the midfield which he's obviously not capable of doing, then you can have Pogba whose liability in defence won't be as exposed and will have more freedom attack wise.

The problem is whenever we've tried those 3 together Matic and Herrera have been in the opposite positions which I don't think is beneficial to each players qualities.
Right. Herrera is a better back passer than Carrick. He does it every time he has the ball. I'll be happy when Herrera possesses better composure but he has become way too nervous on the ball lately for this role.
 

Oneunited26

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You know we are in trouble in midfield when people are calling for carrick to be the answer
 

Yagami

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Right. Herrera is a better back passer than Carrick. He does it every time he has the ball. I'll be happy when Herrera possesses better composure but he has become way too nervous on the ball lately for this role.
I agree in that he's by no means a great passer or dictator of play, but when played as the deepest midfielder he's been more consistent with his forward passes. Whenever he's played further forwards, he's been more than happy to pass the buck and keep it as simple as possible which is the exact opposite of Matic when he ventures forwards.

I don't find it a coincidence that the only time - under José - we've looked alright with a 2 man midfield was when Herrera was in it last year in Matic's role today. I also think Pogba performed at his best for us in a 2 man midfield alongside Herrera as Herrera, unlike Matic, would rarely be overrun due to his great engine and ball winning abilities.
 

James Peril

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Him in a 3 man midfield. With a front 3 of Lukaku, Sanchez and Martial. Rotated with Rashford, Mata and Lingard. This will bring us glory this season.

Discuss.
His son might be, does he have a 20 year old son? Seriously though - Carrick is too old and slow, we need Toni Kroos.
 

OK777

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The new Carrick maybe, Scott McTominay...

Any players out there that are similar to Carrick? We did pick him up close to his peak from Spurs...
 

JMack1234

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I love Carrick. He's an understated legend who I think still has a role to play in the FA cup and maybe as a rotation in some of our league games if we progress in the CL but I think he's pretty much done now.

36 years old, hasn't played for a the vast majority of this season and he looks his age now. Really he should of bowed out last season.
 

sunama

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Hang on a minute.
If the time machine is available, why not bring back a young Alex Ferguson? I think he'd do a fantastic job with the squad we have right now.
 

Nuts

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Him in a 3 man midfield. With a front 3 of Lukaku, Sanchez and Martial. Rotated with Rashford, Mata and Lingard. This will bring us glory this season.

Discuss.
Probably only played against Newcastle so he could say goodbye to St James’ Park in front of all his family in the stands. I don’t think he’ll feature much for the rest of the season, if at all.
 

ThomasEmil

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Guessing his experience would suit us with our current squad.
But then again, let's just buy players and not bother with the ones we got.
 

Luke1995

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People seem to be in a rush to get rid of him. He's the last member of the great Fergie era, trust in our captain. Still the best passer in the team, the quality on the ball is the last thing to go.
 

KevinJoh

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The answer is not Carrick, or any other player, the answer is us playing like a team when we have possession, and not like a group of individuals. Unfortunately, that won't come anytime soon, and definitely not till the end of the season. Our defensive record (which is good, even with some mistakes now and than) is because we are playing like a team without a ball, we move and track and cover spaces and doing some pressure on the rival as a team. Our attacking record is a problem even we have more talented players upfront, cause they are not playing like a team, like they do not train together. When we fix that, we should expect more goals and therefore mistakes of defense like the last one won't be disaster.
 

Marcky411

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An absolute myth.
No watch old games with Carrick 9 out 0f 10 passes went backwards and sideways. Once is a blue moon he would shock us with a pass forward. I used to get so frustrated when Carrick played, was great at bringing his team mates in trouble once pressed on the ball. Actually he hasn't done badly under Mourinho seems to play more balls forward.
Luckily we haven't lost that talent of passing backwards and sideways of Carrick, Herrera has don't an excellent job taken that over.
 

Marcky411

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Not be be funny or nasty as Carrick has been a great servant to the club but he should've either been moved on years ago or retired.
 

Xcited

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The man is set to retire.

He is not the solution. A midfielder in the mould of Carrick in the prime of his career would be.

I personally think we should go all out for Saul. However he seems pretty content at AM.
 

unitedforeveral

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I do definitely think Carrick is the answer until the end of this season. I think he's more mature on the ball and likes to cover more areas in the center of the pitch. His passes are outrageous and can only be picked up by the best of the defenders. He's been at the club's service for a long time now and deserves to play in our midfield for the important matches. He can play alongside Matic and Pogba can play in the middle behind lukaku rendering both Jose's formation and our chances of playing good football worthy.
 

Web of Bissaka

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The answer for only the next few games, especially if Jose still persist with the amazing Smalling-Jones combo.

Pair Carrick with Matic at the base of our midfield, then we will finally have a proper structure hence control and better build-up play.
 

AndyJ1985

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Imagine lining up with Young, Valencia, Smalling, Jones, and Carrick as a back 5. Almost five years and six hundred million quid after Ferguson left.
 

L1nk

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Considering Huddersfield completely run us over for the large majority of that match, which wasn't entirely his fault of course, i'd say no, he's too old now I'm afraid