Seeing as Carrick has become a hot topic around this forum of late, I would like to objectively look at this conundrum from a tactical point of view if you fellow reds will indulge me little. I took some time to make some comparisons. When asked why Carrick doesn't get involved more in the attacking aspect of the game, some reply and say he is a defensive midfielder/sweeper and attacking is not his role. So lets look at the top teams defensive midfielders. Arsenal = Flamini, Chelsea = Ramirez, City = Fernadinho, Pool = Leiva, Spurs = Dembele. Going by this, if Carrick really is a DM then no wonder our midfield is sliced through like butter by teams like Westbrom. All the aforementioned DM's are fast runners, good tacklers and very combative. Carrick is the opposite of those 3 attributes. Slow runner, poor tackler and passive/uncombative.
But then again some of his defenders dont think he is a DM and insist he instead needs a good DM alongside him to play well. Now there are 2 camps here. Some say he is instead a creative midfielder responsible for finding teammates, runs and splitting defences with his famed passing skills while some other midfielder does the dirty work. Well then lets look at the big teams creative midfielders/passers: Arsenal = Ozil, Chelsea = Oscar, City = Silva, Pool = Gerrard, Tottenham = Eriksen. Again by this comparison its no wonder our midfield forward play is poor because all the aforementioned players are masters at splitting defences and feeding strikers and wingers with scoring opportunities. It takes some hard thinking to remember a direct defence splitting pass or through ball from Carrick leading to an assist for a goal. I certainly dont remember any this season as yet. Honest.
The second camp among the above defenders who say he is not a DM claim that he is instead a deep lying playmaker spraying passes from deep and is usually ridiculously compared with xavi of Barca. The BPL does not have many players of this mold but the few who come close to it are Arteta at arsenal, Toure at City, Lampard at Chelsea or Sandro at Tottenham. The real deep lying pass masters are euro guys like xavi, pirlo, bastian and motta. But again, Carrick is nowhere even near these guys who are constantly creating assists for their team's goals every week and dominating possession above 60% per game.
So, which then begs the question, What exactly is Carrick or his tactcal role in the team? This question is never clearly answered by his supporters. All you get is quotes from managers and players praising him and some award he won last year e.t.c No concrete explanation. I honestly in good faith would like someone to try to define Carrick's role in a tactical way because I dont seem to understand it. All I know is that he is the player who gets unquestionably selected for every game in our midfield game after game even as we cry every day at how poor our midfield is and yet he is the only midfielder to constantly be in that midfield for every game while scapegoats like Ando and Clev who play once in a while are isolated for ridicule. I dont get it.
