SOCCER::THREE SUMMERS ago Michael Carrick spent a large part of his holiday touring Britain while working as a roadie with a rock group called The Sound Ex.
It seems an unusual way for a Premier League and England footballer to relax but the Manchester United midfielder’s brother-in-law, Glen Roughead, is in the band and the idea of stepping through a window into a different world appealed.
In many ways, ensuring that The Sound Ex and their equipment made it to the stage on time every night was a perfect job for a player well accustomed to serving as a high-class facilitator.
By regulating tempo and dictating play Carrick is frequently the man who calibrates United’s game but his economy of movement and non-showy persona ensures that the significance of his contribution sometimes eludes untutored eyes.
Perhaps this explains why a 29-year-old whose relative lack of pace and apparent disinclination for high-energy, box-to-box shuttling have sometimes counted against him says he “never” reads newspaper match reports and “rarely” listens to television pundits.
The irony is that the Wallsend Boys Club graduate would probably make a brilliant football analyst.
“Michael really understands football,” says Glenn Roeder, who managed Carrick at West Ham. “Michael’s also got a wonderfully varied, extremely creative passing range, is two footed and glides across the pitch.”
Such praise echoes Xavi Hernandez’s tribute, made shortly before United’s last Champions League final with Barcelona in 2009. “Carrick’s the complete player,” said the Spain midfielder.
Unfortunately during that final the tall, softly-spoken Geordie folded in the face of Xavi and friends, forfeiting possession inside his own half and gifting Pep Guardiola’s side their first goal.
If United are to prevail tomorrow they cannot afford the midfielder, who on joining from Tottenham for €21.5 million in 2006 inherited Roy Keane’s old number 16 shirt, to be outsmarted again by Xavi and Andres Iniesta.
Post Rome 2009, many people believed the midfielder was destined to emulate Juan Sebastian Veron in heading for the Old Trafford exit labelled as an “expensive mistake”.
Such judgments proved premature with Carrick’s recently imperious displays against Chelsea and Schalke justifying his contract extension until 2014. Even so, it is no exaggeration to say that the likelihood of him actually seeing that deal out could hinge on events at Wembley.
If there is a hint of United lapsing into a “Polo” formation – featuring a hole in areas where Carrick should be intercepting, shielding and distributing – the resultant inquest will focus not merely on his individual frailties but the team’s overall strategy.
“There’s defending to be done but it isn’t tied down to one person,” Carrick says. “Team shape is a bigger thing at some other clubs but things aren’t so restrictive here.”
Operating within such a flexible framework demands the sort of acute football intelligence that tempted West Ham to gamble on a gawky, less than fully mobile teenager 15 years ago. The grown-up version has the perfect opportunity and ideal incentive to demonstrate precisely why that judgment was so perspicacious.
“Maybe some of the criticism aimed at me stems from that night against Barca two years ago when to lose like we did was devastating,” Carrick says. “It’s good to get another chance against them.” Redemption beckons.
GuardianService
