Michael Carrick has announced his retirement at the end of the 2017/18 season to join Manchester
United’s coaching team.
Despite only making 34 appearances for England, Carrick, who has won five Premier League titles,
one Champions League, one FA Cup, and one Europa League, is one of the outstanding English
midfielders of his generation.
While started at West Ham United and went on to play over 60 games for Spurs as well,
it was at Manchester United that Carrick’s languid style and positional brilliance really
shone.
Carrick played as part of a midfield two or three, always the deeper lying screen ahead
of the back four.
[PIC 1 and 2]
In the great 2007/08 United team, Carrick tended to play alongside Paul Scholes, either
in a 4-4-2 or a sort of 4-5-1 which hinted at a 4-2-3-1 but with both the pivot midfielders
playing fairly deep.
As we explored in another Tifo video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zK57GHRd9k], that team counter-attacked brilliantly, with
a fluid front three in Europe of Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
They played as a 4-4-2 in the league or shifted and adjusted in European games as the opposition
required.
[PIC 3 and 4 and 5]
Throughout this campaign, Carrick’s sense of position and his ability to read the game
and break up the opposition attacks, before feeding Scholes or playing longer counter-attacking
passes himself, was key.
[PIC 6 and 7]
Despite his nominal defensive role, Carrick certainly had a creative function.
In a tactical summary of the 2012/13 season, Jonathan Wilson noted Carrick as one of the
holding players who fulfilled not just a destructive role for his side, but a constructive one
too.
From his position at the base of the United midfield, Carrick was ideally suited to linking
play from the back to the front.
With a more dynamic midfielder or midfielders alongside him, who could burst forwards in
support, Carrick could sit and either ensure that possession was recycled before an opening
presented itself, or use his superb range of passing to forge one himself.
[PIC 8 and 9]
The key to this was positional sense.
As Sam Tighe (TIE) observed in a Bleacher Report piece from 2013, Carrick consistently
scanned the pitch, always watchful: “Watch Carrick closely.
Watch Frank Lampard closely.
They turn their heads rapidly every two seconds so they know exactly who is where on the field.”
This helped Carrick to guard passing lanes without ever having the athleticism to chase
and harry players all over the pitch.
By angling his body to cut off passes but watch play develop, Carrick could see moves
happen before they materialised.
By pressing space, rather than players, he could mark passing lanes and intercept.
[PIC 10 and 11]
Carrick’s ability to win the ball back meant he was then able to recycle it.
But he was always mindful of his defensive duties; as he himself said in a Four Four
Two coaching piece, “If you can get on the ball and support the attack then go for it,
but be aware of where the danger is if the move breaks down.”
His last five Premier League seasons (he has yet to play in the PL this season) show a
player on the decline, though injury and infrequent selection took their toll.
His passing remain has always been superbly accurate and not simply, as unfair criticism
has suggested, because he always takes a safe option.Defensively, though, he was still superb.
His 2016/17 performance compares favourably to many others in his position this season
and note too how few fouls he gave away.
Indeed, given this retained defensive ability, it’s noticeable how pieces still referred
to him at the beginning of this season as key to United’s approach.
His intelligence and experience count for a lot in Jose Mourinho’s squad and, clearly
with his coaching appointment, in the Portuguese manager’s thinking too.
Defensively superb, intelligent, and positionally brilliant, Carrick was the unfussy cog at
the heart of some of the great recent United teams.
His playing style suggests he could go on to fulfil a similar function behind the scenes
for United too.