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The England Thread


Pilko

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In what way?

 

He's got great technique. I like that about him.

He doesn't though.

 

He attempts difficult forward passes which I like but Jonjo Shelvey does that too. At the top level I just don't think he'll ever be good enough. Especially at international level. That Italy game really stood out to me. He wasn't near any of the Italian midfielders.

 

Although I remember him against France a few years ago.. M'Vila ran circles around him and I thought he would never make it at L'pool. And he's proved me wrong on that front. But i've never seen him control a football match.

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For years I thought Carrick was shite. I was wrong and England have been equally as wrong over the years. He could play on for years, especially at the base of the diamond. And especially now Gerrard has fucked off.

 

Henderson has developed into a cracking player, but is totally different to Carrick. More like a Sami Khedira type of player.

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All that being said, I'm not particularly enamoured with our CM options going forward. Particularly as Wilshere is continually crocked and Oxlade-Chamberlain can't seem to kick on/nail down a position.

 

Reckon Gerrard/Lampard/Scholes being shoehorned in and going out in the quarters will be looked retrospectively as halycon days after the next couple of tournaments.

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Guest firetotheworks

I'm surprised by this like, I thought it was a given that everyone thought Carrick was a really good player. I haven't seen what he's been like recently and wouldn't have him in the squad at his age anyway, but he should have played for England a lot more, he was exactly what we needed, looked brilliant when he played and was then never seen again in favour of playing the two star players, rather than playing the best combination.

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Carrick being widely praised seems to be a very contempary opinion as far as I can tell since everybody got fed up with Lampard/Gerrard and it was in vogue to have a 'controlling' central midfielder in international football. That ignores the fact Carrick is simply not that good. He's one of a number of stable but unspectacular players Fergie managed to lift ridiculous performances out of throughout his career as far as I'm concerned.

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Guest firetotheworks

Nah, I don't think that's fair at all considering he was already a very good player at Spurs. I don't think it's right at all to lump him in with the rest of those players, he's a (I dunno why I'm going with this Sounessism here, but it feels right) a proper footballer, he doesn't hide behind anything, his football ability is very good. I liked him a lot.

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Carrick being widely praised seems to be a very contempary opinion as far as I can tell since everybody got fed up with Lampard/Gerrard and it was in vogue to have a 'controlling' central midfielder in international football. That ignores the fact Carrick is simply not that good. He's one of a number of stable but unspectacular players Fergie managed to lift ridiculous performances out of throughout his career as far as I'm concerned.

If Fergie was able to get ridiculous performances out of him over his career then surely the only evidence we have to see if he was good was those ridiculous performances?

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He's never been more than good tbh, apart from a couple of seasons ago (Fergie's last) where he had an excellent season. He's no better than Darren Fletcher was a few years ago, in fact when they played together Fletcher was frequently the player who would take games by the scruff of the neck and was a more dominant midfielder.

 

Anyway, it's criminal that Fergie left Man Utd with that pool of CMs. Froggy is bigging up Carrick here but he was convinced Cleverley was gonna be one of the best midfielders in the league fairly recently, a bloke who's barely good enough for a shite Villa team. The state Fergie left that part of the pitch in is pretty much the main reason they've totally gone to shit.

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Carrick being widely praised seems to be a very contempary opinion as far as I can tell since everybody got fed up with Lampard/Gerrard and it was in vogue to have a 'controlling' central midfielder in international football. That ignores the fact Carrick is simply not that good. He's one of a number of stable but unspectacular players Fergie managed to lift ridiculous performances out of throughout his career as far as I'm concerned.

If Fergie was able to get ridiculous performances out of him over his career then surely the only evidence we have to see if he was good was those ridiculous performances?

 

I worded that wrongly, I meant as a collective. Man Utd frequently dominated regardless of the side they played. The 8-2 vs Arsenal always comes to mind, their team that day was shite on paper. As was Arsenal's admittedly, but the performance was totally rampant. I very rarely remember them getting caught out despite frequently playing unimpressive line-ups, they just seemed to get by totally on the aura. They got to a CL final in 2011 before anybody put them to the sword. Look at the team they put out that day FFS.

 

The veil has seriously been lifted on some of their squad since Fergie went, and even spending hugely hasn't got that swagger back yet.

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Carrick being widely praised seems to be a very contempary opinion as far as I can tell since everybody got fed up with Lampard/Gerrard and it was in vogue to have a 'controlling' central midfielder in international football. That ignores the fact Carrick is simply not that good. He's one of a number of stable but unspectacular players Fergie managed to lift ridiculous performances out of throughout his career as far as I'm concerned.

 

Can't be having that, I'm afraid. Fergie had to pay nearly 20M to get him from us, back when that was a shit-load of cash. He'd been terrific for us and we'd built our team around him - it didn't take Fergie to "lift ridiculous performances" out of him.

 

He always was a player who was at his best in a specific role. Echoes of Hoddle - two-footed, great vision, calm, unrushed, elegant - but not quite as much flair or goals. Sit him in front of a defence in a fast-moving, passing team and he was excellent. England just never fully made that commitment.

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England never made that 'commitment' because there was better players ahead of him. Players who were carrying their teams to titles, not just being another player in a squad which is what Carrick has always been. Can't say I've ever once thought Carrick was elegant, tbh. This is a player that was falling on his arse/giving the ball away two years in a row to cost Man Utd a CL quarter final and an FA Cup semi final not that long ago. He was widely derided at that time, which was harsh, but he's come full circle to be massively overrated now.

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