Raees
Pythagoras in Boots
- Joined
- May 16, 2009
- Messages
- 29,469
Now during Carrick's tenture with us, I wasn't the biggest fan of Michael. I thought he was overrated with regards to his 'playmaking' and that the talk about him being the english 'Pirlo' was always a bit daft. Nevertheless the one area of his game which I did greatly admire and rated as 'world-class' was his defensive game. People talk about VDS, Rio and Vida.. but Carrick was also rock solid defensively. He played an integral role in providing the platform for Scholes to dictate the game despite his ageing legs and was so consistent as a defensive shield it meant for the first time we were incredibly consistent in Europe and only really struggled against Barcelona and Milan (Carrick was inexperienced when facing them so I will forgive him).
Considering he had to play in a 2 man midfield for the majority of his peak and in a side which wasn't all that dominant from a possession perspective, his defensive contributions were remarkable. The question I want to raise however is how good was he defensively compared to his peers... was he superior to a Busquets if we focus just on the defensive side of his game? how does he compare to United greats such as Stiles, Ince and Keane in this respect?
Considering he had to play in a 2 man midfield for the majority of his peak and in a side which wasn't all that dominant from a possession perspective, his defensive contributions were remarkable. The question I want to raise however is how good was he defensively compared to his peers... was he superior to a Busquets if we focus just on the defensive side of his game? how does he compare to United greats such as Stiles, Ince and Keane in this respect?