While one veteran, Wayne Rooney, started to look a little more like his old self on Thursday night against Fenerbahce, another was quite superb.
TFF hasn’t been alone in calling for Jose Mourinho to play Michael Carrick on a regular basis this season. But the Portuguese doesn’t seem to favour the England man.
But he gave another man of the match performance against the Turks and his quality was there for all to see.
He’s the best passer in the Manchester United squad and he opened up the opposition time and again with that wand of a right foot. He also has the ability to get the ball forward with great quality, unlike many of the other midfielders in the squad.
We saw last night that, at 35, Carrick is still highly mobile and his form certainly hasn’t deserted him.
And is it any coincidence that Paul Pogba had his best game for Manchester United with Carrick alongside him.
At 35 Carrick clearly can’t play every game. Bunt TFF believes that he should be rolled out for the anchor man position in the big games instead of the awful Marouane Fellaini.
It’s so obvious to see that Carrick makes United tick. The current side likes to play the ball short and too often in front of the opposition defence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NWndffClJY
But Carrick has the ability to play that long ball and turn defence into attack in a split second. His pass for Mata in the lead up to the penalty which broke the deadlock for Manchester United was world-class and that sort of talent surely can’t go unnoticed for much longer.
Carrick has only had two starts against Northampton and Fenerbahce – not the greatest opponents. But we all know he’s a big game player and TFF thinks that he simply must be in United’s strongest XI as the season comes to a climax.
Manchester United fans: is he in your strongest XI?