Michael Carrick is key to Manchester United’s turnaround and is the shield that has allowed Paul Pogba to thrive
With the Red Devils stalwart sitting deep in front of the back four and their world-record signing employed further up the pitch, United have been allowed to push on and finally score goals
AT the start of the season Manchester United’s pressing problem was how to get higher up the pitch.
They were too deep, too passive and not attacking enough.
It all made wins hard to come by. Look at the average position pitch map for when United lost to Manchester City 2-1 in September and see how isolated Zlatan Ibrahimovic (No 9) is.
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Now look at how deep Paul Pogba (No 6) is playing. Two of United’s most dangerous players have been nullified.
Ibra, because he is all alone, and Pogba, because he is so deep, not doing damage to the opposition.
Ibrahimovic is great at holding the ball up but even he needs players around him. Otherwise you are asking him to hold off two centre-halves and a defensive midfielder! He’s good — but not that good!
And who was missing against City? Michael Carrick. And who has been a key part of United’s revival and played near enough every game of this amazing winning run? Yep, Michael Carrick.
Marouane Felliani (No 27) was playing in midfield that day but I don’t see him as a natural holding midfielder.
Now look at the map for the Spurs match when they won 1-0 last month.
Carrick (No 16) is playing and is the shield in front of the back four. He is the deepest player bar the centre-halves.
Immediately you can see that the rest of the team is higher up the pitch.
The four midfielders are more advanced. Anthony Martial (No 11) is nearly level with Ibrahimovic and Pogba is much closer to the Swede, too.
The full-backs have pushed higher up too. United are classed as 4-3-3 but are actually more of a 4-1-4-1 with Carrick.
He puts them on the front foot and gives freedom to others which makes it easier to win the ball back high upfield and creates problems for opponents. And he can ping a pass.
Which brings us to Liverpool and how they plan to counter Carrick which could decide the outcome tomorrow.
Liverpool clearly like the high press but Jurgen Klopp has shown there is more than one way to skin a cat. When they beat City 1-0 on New Year’s Eve they played deep — as you can see from the pitch map when compared to their positions in another tough game at Everton.
Allowing City to have the ball at the back took Pep Guardiola’s team by surprise.
Liverpool thought City might pass around them, through the lines, if they pushed up.
They were also happy for City to have the ball deep knowing Fernandinho, for example, is not the sort to ping a 50-yard pass.
With Carrick playing, Liverpool have a new dilemma and might almost use two presses. The first will be to stop him getting the ball.
They may even man mark him with Adam Lallana, for instance. But if that initial high press is beaten, I think Liverpool will drop deeper and go back to their own half.
They won’t want their defence pushing too high or it leaves them vulnerable in behind to United’s pace from the likes of Martial, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Pogba.
It will be fascinating to see what tactics the managers use. Mourinho will be more adventurous than in the 0-0 at Anfield. But can Liverpool counter it?
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