el diablo:

It's not wise to expect Fletcher or Anderson to be fit for any length of time next season. If Fergie does plan for next season as if they'll both be able to play 40 games it would go above and beyond reckless stupidity. Cleverley has had one bad injury problem this season and hopefully it's cleared up. But there are no guarentees with him either.

We have to plan as if both Anderson and Fletcher will be unavailable for most of the season, since that's by far the most likely outcome.

I'm sure that Sir Alex will plan for this for the next season. Too often has Anderson got injured for so long. He needs to get someone to come in for Anderson once he gets injured.

mazhar08:

el diablo:

You've seen how Basel, Bilbao, City, Newcastle and Ajax have utterly dominated our midfield this season. We could maybe compete if we had one or two young, energetic midfielders to play alongside Carrick, but with only Scholes and Giggs we will be destroyed just as we were this season.

To be fair, when we were often dominated in midfield, we didn't have natural central midfielders. The only time our midfield was dominated when it consisted of natural central midfielders was Liverpool last season at Anfield, when Scholes and Carrick patrolled our midfield. For the matches that you have put here, none of them have had natural central midfielders except for Man. City home and away, and our midfield wasn't dominated in that match, just our approach wasn't the right one away from home, and at home, our defence was very leaky, therefore not leaving us with a solid foundation to build on. Bilbao away, we had one fully fit midfielder in Carrick with Cleverley still regaining match sharpness.

If anything, lack of depth killed us this season since once 3 of our midfielders got injured, we were thin in that department, having only Scholes and Carrick to look upon.

And I agree with el diablo that Carrick's partner of either Scholes or Giggs won't work well against top sides as they lack the mobility and energy to get forward and press the opposition back. Defensively, Scholes and Carrick can close down the spaces and passing options well, whilst either can then close down the ball-holder, but when we're on the attack, neither can go forward, or else we can get opened up by the opposition as neither can get back quickly enough, as Swansea showed at home. And Giggs isn't even a central midfielder, lol. His best matches were either out wide or as the attacking midfielder.

If we can have a younger, more natural midfield partner to Carrick, we can do well.

I agree

It's not wise to expect Fletcher or Anderson to be fit for any length of time next season. If Fergie does plan for next season as if they'll both be able to play 40 games it would go above and beyond reckless stupidity. Cleverley has had one bad injury problem this season and hopefully it's cleared up. But there are no guarentees with him either.

We have to plan as if both Anderson and Fletcher will be unavailable for most of the season, since that's by far the most likely outcome.

thomas21:

Anderson and Cleverley are Injury prone, and you will not see them play together again with us.......Anderson's time is up, IMO... Cleverley will be out, more than he is in........The same old Routine, since he was a youngster.......Started, 6-7 games this season.......

Don't know about that, there may be a case for Anderson being injury prone but he's still reasonably young as is Cleverley, I hope both of them can have a go at it next season and remain injury free!

Ruud van the man`s main fan:

http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/statszone/archive/2012/05/16/why-michael-carrick-should-start-for-england-this-summer.aspx Interesting article.

But yet again he was overlooked for England. Plus, people are going to keep slating him, they just don't see reason.

http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/statszone/archive/2012/05/16/why-michael-carrick-should-start-for-england-this-summer.aspx Interesting article.

Max Kamarake:

Wow! If Carrick was soooo good,why did we bring back Scholes? It was sad to read Fergie's comments about not buying a holding midfielder! I'm resigned to us not being able to compete if we dont strengthen our defensive shield! Carrick is not a natural in that position and I feel against Man City and Yaya Toure/De Jong in particular, he basically faded! If we're to lose a game, no problem! But to lose it without anyone putting up a passionate fight is just pathetic!

Max i dont think thats fair. But really i think Carrick is that good to be honest. I want the best for United and you can see that from being a big fan of Ruud,ive taken to Carrick's contributions for United. Carrick was more then capable to stand up against a 3 man midfield of City as proven especially at the 3-2 win at Etihad. And im not saying Carrick is better then Toure, in fact i think Toure is the best in the world but is it fair to Carrick that he only plays to cover what we lack. In fact, when SAF saw that playing Carrick allows him to utilise Giggs and Scholes it is obvious he sees no pressing need for a signing. Toure is treated like king and has 2 defensive midfielders most of the time to support him and who does Carrick have? And we have to clear this mistake about bringing Scholes back. Scholes was the one who wanted to come back and asked SAF. I have said this many times before and i will say it again. Every world class team needs a player who supports the theory of Nash that is to do whats good for him and the team. Having said all of that, I do feel the need of a competent midfielder so that we can allow Carrick to express himself. Carrick is like a widow who has to bring up his child on his own and its been too long and now its time for him to share the burden of raising the child.

Anderson and Cleverley are Injury prone, and you will not see them play together again with us.......Anderson's time is up, IMO... Cleverley will be out, more than he is in........The same old Routine, since he was a youngster.......Started, 6-7 games this season.......

tyldesleyred:

This is what Fergie said yesterday he says we dont need anyone to replace Scholes because Carrick can fill the gap, now is it just me or did we spend the first half of the season without Scholes and did we have a midfield creativity NO and sorry but Scholes will go down as one of the best midfielders of all time in the world so suggesting Carrick the crab will replace him is obsurd Carrick does his job of keeping the game ticking over i wont denie that but to suggest he can replace Scholes is just wrong he is not in the same league as him. He eiether needs to replace his quality players with quality players when they leave or give the likes of Pogba, Cleverly, Keanes etc a proper run of games instead of keeping loyal to the average back up players we have in the squad. I would be happy to watch us win nothing for a few seasons as long as we are giving the home grown youth a shot at proving them selves.

I sort of agree with this approach too. I think that this has to be the last season for a lot of players, basically if they didn't play anymore than 10 games (without good reason) then cut them. A smaller squad works best in terms of team functionality and we have versatile and fit enough players to play 50 games a season. For me though I'd be giving the youngsters game after game, it's the only way they will improve, for years when Barca wasn't winning things Xavi and Iniesta were playing together constantly. The potential of De Gea, Rafael, Fabio, Smalling, Evans, Jones, Anderson, Cleverley, Nani, Welbeck and Hernandez is amazing (and just realising maybe one heck of a starting line up)!

But definitely, these lads need to be playing as they all have massive potential and I think we should stick with them how Fryers, the Keanes, Tunniclife and teh others develop will be interesting but that group should be playing at least once a fortnight.

I actually like the Carrick and Flecther combination (ever since the thrashing of Roma) it works well with Carrick moving the ball and Fletcher getting box-to-box.

Similarly, the Anderson and Cleverley formula could be world class but both would need a real run of games and I'm not so sure the former can sustain a season of competitive football in England.

Agree entirely, with the three man midfield of Carrick, Scholes and Giggs, it's too easily broke down and not as mobile as other teams (not a massive issue) but if they are all on form it could be used to devasting effect. I think that Scholes and Giggs will be used very sparingly over what could be there last season, and hopefully Carrick can take the mantle a bit more and be our main midfilelder and Cleverley, Anderson and Fletcher can get back to full fitness.

Jim21:

Why people are such idiots?He said he will fill the ROLE that Scholesy has, not him as a player.He will be the experienced midfielder like Scholes is all these years.Try to improve your reading skills.

Thank you for bring sanity to this thread.

Ruud van the man`s main fan:

el diablo:

If Carrick is our main man in midfield for the next 2-3 years than SAF will not be winning any more CL trophies, and that is a bonafide fact. And probably not any more PL titles either.

If i remember correctly, the very same Carrick was our main man in midfield when we went to the 3 CL finals, yes hes played more games then Scholes. The midfielders before that did not achieve that.

Well no you do not remember correctly, Scholes and Hargreaves were the spine of the team and before that Keane and Scholes (missed the 1999 final though). Let me put it this way we have been successful desipite of Michael Carrick who is a decent player but not because of him.

In my opinion Carrick should be a back up. We need to get a reliable defensive midfielder and a creative midfielder. That should solve our problems.

forevergiggs:

el diablo:

If Carrick is our main man in midfield for the next 2-3 years than SAF will not be winning any more CL trophies, and that is a bonafide fact. And probably not any more PL titles either.

How dare you speak the truth on this forum. lol

Exactly! Truth speaker, how dare you? Don't you know having your own ideas means you're a glory hunter who should support City?

Wow! If Carrick was soooo good,why did we bring back Scholes? It was sad to read Fergie's comments about not buying a holding midfielder! I'm resigned to us not being able to compete if we dont strengthen our defensive shield! Carrick is not a natural in that position and I feel against Man City and Yaya Toure/De Jong in particular, he basically faded! If we're to lose a game, no problem! But to lose it without anyone putting up a passionate fight is just pathetic!