Michael Carrick: The Spaniard in the English game

It is no coincidence that the arrival of Michael Carrick in 2006 kick started a dream run for Manchester United – 4 out of 5 Premier League titles, 1 semi final and 3 finals in Europe’s biggest competition and 2 Carling Cups. Bought as a replacement for captain courageous Roy Keane, Carrick doesn’t possess the rousing warrior in Keane but he makes up for it with his array of passing and a quiet unassuming way of going about the business. Perhaps Sir Alex preferred Carrick’s ‘silent yet highly effective’ midfield play than the rabble rousing Keane who didn’t have to think twice before publicly berating his own team mates.

Carrick’s game is about grace and fluidity matched by an eye for a tackle. Like all great players Carrick seems to have time on the ball and along with an in built GPS, runs the show for United in the middle of the park. The best thing about Carrick is he goes unnoticed during a match – his accurate passing and superior ball distribution are taken for granted despite not patenting too many ‘Hollywood passes’. His tackling and screening the back four is mighty effective as is his fine reading of the game. It is no surprise that in times of crisis he has donned the central defender’s hat; and performed exceedingly well there too.

He might not be the English football’s much loved box to box goal scoring midfielder but Carrick brings composure on the ball and to the team – an attribute highly rated among the best midfielders yet painfully absent in the English game. Perhaps that is the reason of his absence from the national side, where the midfield has two fixed roles – goal scoring (Lampard and Gerrard) and the midfield destroyer (Barry and Parker). Not surprisingly, England suffers from a lack of a passer in the big tournaments where ball retention is the difference between the best teams. And following on the same rationale, United’s success in continental football owes its fair share to the likes of Carrick and of course Scholes.

Perhaps the only complaint about Carrick is the lack of goals from a person who packs a punch on either peg and has a deceptive turn of pace. He is one of those rare midfielders who can ‘pass the ball into the net from outside the box’. Remember his solo virtuoso run at QPR this season (which almost seemed to be in slow motion for even the live audience) capped by a final pass into the back of the net. It is perhaps a product of the attacking riches United possessed in this phase that Carrick has been content to screen the back four and orchestrate the attacks from his deep lying role.

The final argument in the unassuming tale of Michael Carrick is the opinion of his own team mates. Much like Nani (who was ignored by all in the country last year despite effectively being United’s official player of the season in a title winning squad) Carrick gets the most flak from those outside Carrington. His team though worships him openly for the way he strings the attacks, puts in a shift, shuns the limelight (much like his partner in crime Scholes) and above all, is committed to the team’s cause through thick and thin.