A sigh of relief for Old Trafford as Carrick brings sense of calm
BESIDES gaining a badly needed win, the most pleasing aspect of yesterday for Louis van Gaal was naming Michael Carrick in his starting line-up for the first time. It’s been a long four months for the Dutchman since Carrick damaged ankle ligaments during his very first week in charge.
Van Gaal predicted it would be a huge blow to his plans — he had even been considering Carrick as captain — and nothing that has happened since has proved him wrong.
Following surgery, rehab and one appearance as a substitute against Manchester City last week, Carrick was the man that Van Gaal turned to in a bid to lift United from their lowly starting position of 10th place.
It wasn’t pretty and it had few of the thrills and spills that gave Old Trafford its reputation as the Theatre of Dreams but Carrick’s calm influence will have been of huge comfort to his manager. He’s that rarest of species, an English midfield player who is comfortable in possession and has a great passing range.
Until now, Van Gaal’s United career has been like walking a tightrope without any safety net. So much has been made of the £158 million spent last summer, and a fearsome front four of Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Radamel Falcao, Juan Mata and Angel di Maria, that nobody appeared to have thought about the balance of the team.
Yesterday, Van Gaal took his most significant step to steady the wobble, sacrificing flair and excitement for control of the game and three points.
Despite United’s defensive crisis — all four of their senior centrehalves were either injured or suspended yesterday — he resisted the temptation to ask Carrick to plug the gap at the back.
Instead, Daley Blind was asked to move positions and Carrick was told to do what he does best, sit in front of the back four, protect against counter-attacks and control his side’s play.
‘I felt comfortable, being sub last week helped,’ said the 33-year-old. ‘I played centre-half in that game at City but the manager decided to swap it today. Daley [Blind] is leftfooted so he’s a more comfortable left-sided centre-back.’
Though United were far from their best, Carrick did his job. He didn’t hare about crunching into tackles but his reading of the game meant he didn’t need to.
‘It worked OK. They let us have possession but creating chances is the difficult bit when teams defend like that in numbers. We got the win in the end though.’
The only genuine chance for the visitors, hooked over by Frazer Campbell, came when Paddy McNair and Blind failed to deal with a cross from the left.
Carrick emerged unscathed from a number of 50-50 challenges and, more importantly, was always on hand to receive the ball and invariably use it in the right way.
United had 72 per cent possession and while they didn’t pepper Palace’s goal, their control led to Juan Mata’s breakthrough midway through the second half. At times, you could see Carrick directing with discreet signals to his team-mates, very much the senior figure taking responsibility.
It rubbed off on the younger players around him, too. It was no coincidence Carrick’s return coincided with Luke Shaw’s best game for United. The left-back surged forward knowing he would receive the right pass at the right time, and nearly scored from one such foray, only to see his shot beaten away by Julian Speroni.
And after United had scored, when Palace were pushing for an equaliser, Carrick tracked back to block a Fraizer Campbell shot.
He is one of those players most appreciated when he’s been missing. Van Gaal appreciates him, and so does Roy Hodgson, which is why he’s walked straight back into the England squad to face Slovenia and Scotland.