Is Time Running Out For Michael Carrick?
When United run out against Blackburn tomorrow, chances are that Michael Carrick will be asked to add guile and wit to United’s midfield against one of the Premiership’s in-form sides.
The match is yet another opportunity for the midfielder to stake his claim to a first team position after a season interrupted by injury and bewitched by the rival claims of competitors.
With Scholes absent until the New Year, it would seem that the England midfielder has a clear run at nailing down a place in the United engine room. Carrick, though, is taking nothing for granted. “The squad is terrific,” he admitted. “A few lads have been rested, and that will continue throughout the season. The manager has got a lot of bodies, but I’m sure it’s a happy problem for him. I think everyone has raised their level of performance up a notch or two now. That is what this club is all about. They are all top players - and whoever plays will not let anyone down.”
Carrick’s magnanimity fits with a character which, publicly at least, seems to be of easy disposition. He is an accomplished player, wearing a £18 million price tag, who helped United to win the title in his first season at the club. However, the first three months of the campaign may have already provided tangible evidence that time and good fortune may not be on the player’s side? With Sir Alex committed to rotation and Anderson and Hargreaves providing an irresistible glimpse of the future at the Emirates Stadium last week, Carrick faces the toughest fight of his United career, amid sneers that he doesn’t hurt the opposition enough and may be destined to play the role of midfield support act rather than leading man
Luck and an uninterrupted run of games allowing for the return of his best form, should be sufficient to recast the midfielder again as an unsung yet fundamental element in the United team. Carrick hopes his comeback against Kiev will prove to be a springboard. “It was nice to get back,” he added, speaking of his comeback in the destruction of Dynamo Kiev. “It was a frustrating break, because I was starting to play well and the team was playing well. But it is a long old season, and I am looking forward to the games ahead.”
When the midfielder joined United, under the headline ‘Carrick: a Keane or a Kleberson?’ the Mail newspaper wrote: “At 25, Carrick certainly has time to improve his football under the guidance of United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. He now has the stage he has craved for so long.”
Carrick has the stage. Now he must deliver.
