For me the ideal replacement of Carrick is already playing here and his name is Pogba.
- vision: check
- passing: check
- positional awareness: check
For the rest he is just more atheltic (stronger and faster) and has dribbling skills that Carrick never had and he has the ability when he moves forward to get a goal which we also never had with Carrick. So not as much a replacement as an upgrade. Only thing he will need to work on is his consistency but Carrick also didn't have that from the get go, this is something that has to grow in his game over time.
Ofcourse that means Pogba can not be our nr 10. Which is ok because generally he doesn't play well as a nr10 and there are far more and better options to get a 10 than to get a deeplying playmaker in the market. Mata currently is perfect as a 10 and if we want to improve ourself we can get Griezmann who can also perfectly play as a 10.
The only thing missing in that midfield is a hard worker, running his miles, closing the gaps and protecting the defence. Currently in the team that role can be done by Herrera/Fellaini and I see a future for TFM in that role aswell. Bakayoko would also fit that role.
So in that line of tought I suggest we start playing like this:
------------Herrera/Fellaini/TFM--------Pogba/Carrick------------------
-------------------------------Mata/Rooney-------------------------------
Let it evolve to this next season:
-----------Bakayoko/TFM------Pogba/Herrera----------------------
------------------------Griezmann/Mata-----------------------------
Now queu the holy 3 man midfield crusaders who will tell me this is impossible and only looks good on paper and we can never play like this in the PL for reasons