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Forget Ferdinand, Manchester United's Michael Carrick Is The Glaring Omission From England's Euro 2012 Squad
While popular debate focuses on Rio Ferdinand's exclusion, the real concern should be that once again England's under-valued midfield maestro Michael Carrick has been overlooked.
The complete exclusion of Manchester United’s Michael Carrick from Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2012 squad is the biggest oversight of both the England manager and the media coverage. The Sky Sports News glare focuses on Ferdinand’s snub, yet Carrick has just as much justification to feel aggrieved at missing out. Keeping the ball has too often been the problem for English sides at major international tournaments and no English player keeps the ball better than Michael Carrick. Carrick possess an average of 73.1 passes per game for Manchester United, a rate higher than all other English players, and the third highest rate in the entire Premier League.
This time last summer, The FA’s director of technical development, Trevor Brooking claimed that England need more players in the mould of Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere. Brooking claimed that; “You need ten outfield players comfortable in possession. We don’t keep the ball as well as countries like Spain.” England are undoubtedly lacking in possession savvy yet if there is one player who comes close to a Xavi model it is Michael Carrick. Unlike Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, Carrick does not catch the limelight with spectacular last minute winners. There will be little popular uproar at his exclusion, yet his ability to keep the ball in midfield is arguably more valuable to England than the swashbuckling skills of Super Frank or Stevie G.
England are undoubtedly lacking in possession savvy yet if there is one player who comes close to a Xavi model it is Michael Carrick
Someone who does not overlook the talents offered by Carrick is Sir Alex Ferguson. It’s not easy to continually impress one of the most experienced and successful managers in the game yet Carrick has once again this season become a mainstay in a Man United’s midfield. This is a midfield that has averaged the highest possession rate in the league with 57.7 percent. As Manchester United almost pipped Man City to the title Carrick’s passing was essential to their charge. It is well documented that Hodgson favours a 4-4-2 formation. If this is the case, Hodgson may well see Scott Parker as a more defensively-sound partner to Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard who will undoubtedly want to get forward. Yet while Parker’s tackling and interception rates are better than Carrick’s, Carrick is surprisingly close to the Tottenham man. Carrick makes an average of 3 tackles and 2.4 interceptions per match, putting him in the top ten premiership midfielders on defensive stats. Parker is only marginally better (with 3.7 tackles and 3.1 interceptions) on this front but is far behind on passing with an average of just 59.3 passes per game as opposed to Carrick’s 73.1
While Parker’s tackling and interception rates do better Carrick’s, Carrick is surprisingly close to the Tottenham man
Carrick could therefore just as easily free up a Gerrard or Lampard as Parker does and may well be able to provide a creative player with more of the ball than Parker can. With Carrick breaking up the opposition play and more often than not finding teammates with his first pass, his common midfield partner in the second half of the season Paul Scholes was able to express himself more creatively. With Scholes able to probe opposition defences, United, until the last month of the season, thrived. It is said that Manchester United will undergo wholesale changes to their centre-midfield next season with Carrick predicted to be cut. Yet this has been claimed a number of times before and Carrick continues to work his way back into Sir Alex’s thinking.
Hodgson could also argue that Carrick has previously failed when tested for England. It is true that Carrick has rarely set the world alight, it is misguided to say he has failed. Hodgson is not the first England manager to underuse Carrick’s talents. In 2010, as Gareth Barry was hopelessly overrun by Germany’s midfield, Carrick did not even make it onto the pitch. Carrick’s most extended run in the side came under Steve McClaren and perhaps he is suffering from the manager’s low reputation. Yet Carrick has rarely failed for England and it should be noted that in one of their most impressive friendly performances in recent times, the 2-1 victory over Germany in Berlin, Carrick was named by both BBC and ESPN as the man of the match.
If Trevor Brooking and the FA wanted to develop a footballing philosophy of possession based football ball akin to Spain then their first move should have been to appoint a manager who would have actually selected their best player in this mould. Your annoying, misinformed friends on Facebook are most probably ruing Ferdinand’s “appalling” rejection or Downing’s “unbelievable” selection. Yet it is the lack of Michael Carrick in this England squad that could ultimately cost Hodgson.
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COMMENTS
Brilliant , thoughtful and hard - hitting article.... On the flip side England's loss = Fergie's gain....
What you want a player who, majority of the time passes sideways or backwards? No creativity. However he should be a reserve, just in case. He's decent back-up
United will be buying a new midfield but with Carrick being so solid it be a mistake to sell him or have him linger on the bench. Cleverly 2.0 will make a re-introduction, hopefully another solid young midfielder will come in to learn the Scholes/United way but a midfield without Carrick is a weaker midfield. And yes, look for England to be over run by the Spanish, German and Dutch midfielders, Gerrard and Lampard are old men and Terry is even older. They should have left Parker as captain. England needs new blood.
If only Moussa Dembele were English.
James - how little you know about football. I suppose xavi just passes sideways and backwards also? English fans are clueless.
What does Gareth Barry bring to the party?!
James - The point is that Carrick in the side means other players have room to be creative. Carrick doesn't need to be, he just needs to get the ball off the opposition (which he does fairly well) and give it to the creatives further forward (which he does very well).
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Carrick is a waste of space. That said I'd rather see him in the Euros than Downing - he's been feeckin awful for my beloved Reds all season and if any one wants to buy the useless tosser be my guest. The guy I'd like to see there is Crouch. The big lanky bugger scores goals. End of.
^ Football made simple.
Lampard and Gerrard in midfield for England. That'll work......wait a minute. Carrick should have been the first name on the list but Roy goes for the tried and tested failure squad. ZZZZZzzzzzzz...........
I agreem Carrick is a consistantly under rated player. Rolls Royce of a midfielder with a great range of passing. For some reason if you aren't all action like Bryan Robson or Keano United fans will slate you but your stats prove a point- he offers more than Parker, even if he lacks the same tenacity. I remember Xabi Alonso said it best a few years ago http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/07/06/2012141/real-madrid-star-xabi-alonso-believes-michael-carrick-is-the
Carrick is terrible. Hes part of the reason our midfield has been weak and lacking in creativity. Backwards man, thats all. Not good enough for england and defo not good enough for united.
Not selecting Carrick: another England Manager screws up. When will people realise just what Michael Carrick brings to the team?? Sigh.
@ James(4.25pm), This is what the majority of the football fans don't get about Carrick. He has to pass it sideways as United's creativity is on the flanks where Nani/Valencia/Giggs and Ashley Young can cause havoc. That is exactly how his manager wants him to play. Those sideways and backward passes deny the opposition the ball and it is what makes Xavi/Iniesta world class. It's quite better than the hit-n-miss Hollywood passes that Gerrard and Lampard are known for which has caused England to fail time and time again. Carrick should have been the number one midfielder in the squad. There's no decent passer in that England midfield.
England never learned from the past. how many time gerard and lampard failed to hold the midfield? England seem look better in mid after parker came. carrick is underated player. Just becaused he rarely score and assist doesn't he never help the team. if you really watch the game you can see carrick assist other player to assist( he assist the assister). someone said about sideways or backwards? He keep the ball in possession, its much more better than some midfield that waste the possesion. last World cup showed how terrible england in midfield. They hardly create any chance for forward. They also hardly to keep the ball in possesion.
poor old Carrick, we don't want players who pass the ball to players in the same kit in this country. A bit like how Peter Crouch can't ever play for Ingerlund again as he plays for us, despite him being the best hold-the-ball-up man in the country, especially compered to Andy 'trampoline-chest' Carroll. Oh dear, another summer arfing at the facepainted, Lonsdale 3/4 length trackie bottomed bulbs in the city centre
One of the most overrated English footballers ever. His pass rate success is surely down to square balls and back passes. And then he goes and provides on decent "defence-splitting" pass every 6 games and England's sports media lauds him to the skies. Typical.
not one passer in the england squad
I think we should hope, but certainly not expect, that this England team might do ok under a manager whose strength seems to be getting the best out of second raters, which is what we currently are. I note that the F.A. has issued an edict that kids should no longer play with full sized footballs on full sized pitches. They did the same about ten or so years ago. Yet you can still see tiny tots hopelessly pursuing footballs as bigs as they are on any Saturday or Sunday during the season. Perhaps, by the next world cup, some players with the properly developed ability to control and (therefore) pass the ball might have emerged, though I tend to doubt it. It will take longer than that for us to catch up. On a slightly different note. I can't believe that Peter Crouch is still being put forward as worthy of a place, on the basis of his scoring record. The fact is that he never, as far as I recall, scored a goal against decent opposition, in a game that really mattered and which we won. Mostly, he scored against 'minnows' in competition games or he scored against major sides in friendlies. Not quite in despair.
Carrick is being very underrated. i mean judge him on the basis of how well his team performed as well. United almost snatched the title and Carrick was a key part in the that. i dont know if that isnot enough for a player to get into his country,s squad then what is. its not abt how attractive football u play its abt getting the job done. and Carrick would have been the man to do it.
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