[Devil may care]

Some good passing and the most incisive of our CM's on the ball, but his lack of agility is very evident.

 

[Sylar]

He needs to be used in a three man midfield, with the two ahead of him doing the leg work. Never understand using him in anything else especially given what weve seen otherwise.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

Might have been a slight mistake to give him a deal, probably just hindsight but he is a ghost of his former self. This has to be his last season, he can barely run anymore. His passing might be nice but a genuine all action midfielder who can play from deep drive the two in front of him as far forward as he can is a must next season.

 

[kouroux]

Even at his age, even with his current "average" performances (in comparison to his best form at the club), he is still our best CM for me. The one who truly tries to play with his brain.

 

[Stack]

Might have been a slight mistake to give him a deal, probably just hindsight but he is a ghost of his former self. This has to be his last season, he can barely run anymore. His passing might be nice but a genuine all action midfielder who can play from deep drive the two in front of him as far forward as he can is a must next season.

There is one thing missing from everyone who posts opinions similar to this.
That is the issue of players playing to a managers instructions. There is a good chance Carrick doesnt drive forward because he is being asked to play a certain way.

 

[Manny]

He needs to be used in a three man midfield, with the two ahead of him doing the leg work. Never understand using him in anything else especially given what weve seen otherwise.

Its so fecking obvious. Yet both Jose and LvG have managed to feck this up over and over again.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

There is one thing missing from everyone who posts opinions similar to this.
That is the issue of players playing to a managers instructions. There is a good chance Carrick doesnt drive forward because he is being asked to play a certain way.

You could be right, but I honestly don't think that is the case. He can barely run now, so obviously he's not going to drive the team forward because if he gets caught up field he's just another body that doesn't get back well enough. Flipping him for a player who can push the shape of the team further forward to play in their half and allow us to function in the oppositions counter transitional phase will be very important in my opinion. Breaking the back of counters that form from our sustained pressure and being able to cut off the opposition's advance through the middle areas when high up the field is a must. It will open up our ability to then fast transition the passing lanes that re-distribute the ball forward faster and have the opposition scrambling.

I think that is one of Mourinho's tactical hallmarks. Something we're struggling to execute at the moment, for various reasons.

 

[ivaldo]

There is one thing missing from everyone who posts opinions similar to this.
That is the issue of players playing to a managers instructions. There is a good chance Carrick doesnt drive forward because he is being asked to play a certain way.

Well that could be the defense of every insipid performance of any player. His absolute lack of anything creative is becoming annoying, playing the occasional pretty place isn't enough. For a player with supposed God like passing it would nice for him to occasionally find one of our attackers in a dangerous area.

 

[Sir Roi de Muppeterre]

Last match it appeared that Herrera was ahead of him when we were attacking and behind him when we were defending, almost making it look like Carrick was just standing there in the middle.

I am conflicted about Carrick. I really like him but I think it is more because of what he has done over the course of his career with us than what he is currently capable of. If both him and Rooney are gone next season, we will lose two players who have been there and done it all for us and loosing that much experience is a scary proposition for me. Although I would understand the counter argument that we need to move on from the old guard to rebuild the side.

I'd trust the manager on whatever call he takes. We only see Carrick on pitch, we don't know how much his presence in locker room and training help us.

 

[Zoo]

Very good first half. Hope he's here next season.

 

[Godfather]

Absolutely immense in the middle today. Bossing the midfield.

 

[charlenefan]

Bossing it

 

[prath92]

Tielemans schooled on how to boss a midfield

 

[Lawman]

Superb

 

[Akshay]

Very solid, looks the Carrick of old today. Great pass forward to Rashford as well.

 

[17 Van der Gouw]

Our best player tonight.

 

[Devil may care]

Very good performance, him and Pogba worked really well in tandem.

 

[Acole9]

Been critical of him this season but he really was excellent tonight, totally bossed it.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Excellent. Also been critical and think he's been overrated this season, but tonight was the 2012-2013 Carrick in full force almost.

We need to find a deep-lying midfielder in the summer.

 

[Raw]

Very good. He showed that he still has a role next season, albeit a very limited one.

 

[Sylar]

Plays well next to Pogba esp as a 2 man base.

 

[17 Van der Gouw]

Excellent. Also been critical and think he's been overrated this season, but tonight was the 2012-2013 Carrick in full force almost.

Oh man, just don't...

Carrick and/or Scholes feeding a goal-hungry Van Persie, and winning the league by 11 points.

Just seems unreal now.

 

[3KDré]

Excellent. Also been critical and think he's been overrated this season, but tonight was the 2012-2013 Carrick in full force almost.

We need to find a deep-lying midfielder in the summer.

Pogba's replacement at Juve, Pjanic, would have been fantastic for this team.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

Genuinely surprised to see people rated him tonight, I thought he was dreadful in the second half. Legs completely gone, it doesn't help that Pogba-Mkhi combination leaves a lot for him to do in transition. I might have to watch the game again for a second look and see if I missed something.

 

[kundalini]

The only excuse I can think of for Carrick's decision to run down the clock, is that he was attempting to save the team's energy for Sunday. He possesses more than enough talent to play the ball forwards so it has to be a deliberate choice to be that negative.

 

[Raees]

Enjoyed his performance today. Was excellent.

 

[Coops73]

Brilliant performance, passing was excellent, him and Pogba together looked really good, my MOTM.

 

[Eugenius]

Brilliant yesterday and still our most effective midfielder. You could see the effect of having a base of two midfielders who always want the ball and can play it 40 yards on either foot. Still our only player willing to play it through to attackers early.

Don't get the legs are gone comments. He can't play 3 games a week but not sure what the comments are based on. It's not like it's his game to cover ground, and it was only earlier in the season he was outpacing Aguero.

 

[K2K]

Brilliant in the first half, but he dropped along with the rest of the team in the second.

 

[cristianorooney]

Did anyone else notice how pissed off he looked when he was leading the team out before the game. Played well though.

 

[Yagami]

Amazing player.

It baffles me when I see people bemoaning his inclusion in the starting 11 or being offered a new contract. He's still an incredible player who's very valuable to the team. Hope he stays for a few more years.

 

[littleman]

I'd like to see him gone for next season and us rebuild the midfield properly. If there's small slivers of time to be rationed out, I'd like it to go to young promising midfielders than Carrick.

 

[K2K]

Came in and was just class.

 

[Akshay]

Did a very good job solidifying the midfield and countering the Fabregas threat. Some nice passes too.

 

[Devil may care]

Shut down any potential for Fabregas to effect the game and as uusal was always looking for the forward pass.

 

[Fracture90]

So reliable this guy. Today in the first minute he came on he created a chance for Rashford.

Amazing servant throughout the years and a true legend. Unsung hero that will be hard if not impossible to replace.

 

[Ixion]

He hasn't been at his best recently but he put in a good cameo today.

 

[ti vu]

Perfect counter for Cesc, but impossible to replace is OTT. We could have even done more damage to Chelsea if we really needed it without Carrick's sub by having our attackers on field. Carrick just came on to see out the game. He did it perfectly. That's it

So reliable this guy. Today in the first minute he came on he created a chance for Rashford.

Amazing servant throughout the years and a true legend. Unsung hero that will be hard if not impossible to replace.

 

[MadMike]

So reliable this guy. Today in the first minute he came on he created a chance for Rashford.

Amazing servant throughout the years and a true legend. Unsung hero that will be hard if not impossible to replace.

Dafuq, we've been singing his name at almost every game that he's started at Old Trafford for the last I don't know how many years. He's not unsung at all.

With Herrera and Pogba in the squad his playmaking responsibilities have already been replaced. We don't need to replace him like-for-like, like he didn't replace Keane like-for-like.

 

[Escobar]

I liked that every time he was under pressure with the ball, he managed to lift his head and play a good pass