Player Focus: Underrated Carrick key to upturn in United form

Manchester United have won all their matches in which Michael Carrick made a start.

It’s very hard to look at a run of six successive victories and see a problem, but it’s equally very hard to look at a Manchester United game these days and not see a host of major issues. Their surge into third has been baffling, deeply flawed performances masked by consistent results. Louis van Gaal has left nobody in any doubt that he hasn’t been especially happy with the way United are playing, although after Sunday’s 3-0 win over Liverpool he did give his side credit for the way they’ve been “forcing our luck”.

In that phrase he seemed to sum up that least graspable of concepts: the ability certain sides have of making the best of things. There is an attribute of winningness, the capacity to withstand pressure and take chances when they come, to have the hard edge of champions. United had that in abundance under Sir Alex Ferguson and they seem to have re-discovered it, aided by the superlative goalkeeping of David De Gea and some fine finishing, most notably by Robin van Persie.

But there is another factor in United’s return to, if not form, then at least winning. Michael Carrick missed the start of the season after ankle surgery, and his return was delayed by a groin strain. He played 47 minutes of the 1-0 defeat against Manchester City, a game that will perhaps come to be seen as a turning point for Van Gaal: although his side lost, they played 52 minutes of the game with 10 men after the dismissal of Chris Smalling and were a little unfortunate to lose. Since then, Carrick has played every minute.

He’s operated as a midfielder, as a holding player and as a central defender, performing all three roles with his customary sense of calm authority. At Southampton, in particular, it was noticeable how the course of the game changed after he dropped into the back three following the substitution of Paddy McNair just before half-time.

United had played in a frenzy of panic for much of that first half, and probably should have been behind, but once Carrick was installed in the middle of the back three, Southampton never looked as threatening. Part of the reason was Carrick’s passing: an 86.5% pass success rate compared to the 72% McNair had achieved. United distributed better and so were able to control the tempo of the game better.

He’s a player who’s been underrated for most of his career, largely because he rarely does anything spectacular. Those whose knowledge of football comes from Vines and YouTube clips will see little in him. He’s a player appreciated by other players and by those who watch United regularly live; his strength is his positioning, the way his movement can stifle opposition attacks, the way he keeps the ball, the way his calm rubs off on others. It’s true that in certain games he can look flustered when pressed – notably in the two Champions League finals against Barcelona – but against all but the very elite he offers a tremendous sense of control.

Article plublished with permission from WhoScored.