SOCCER:MICHAEL CARRICK has accepted he will need to take more responsibility at Manchester United this season if Alex Ferguson is unsuccessful in his attempts to bring another creative midfielder to the club.
Those hopes appear to be receding and that leaves greater emphasis on Carrick now that Paul Scholes has retired. Carrick turned 30 on Thursday and is aware that he needs to have more influence on the team.
“It’s just as you get older and more experienced and mature. It (Scholes’s retirement) doesn’t create extra pressure for me, it’s just a natural progression, especially with our squad being the way it is now. We’ve got a lot of younger players so it’s up to the older ones to set an example of how things should be done, and I suppose I am one of the older ones now.”
A case could be made that Carrick is now the best passer of the ball at Old Trafford, but he can still polarise opinion among United’s supporters, many of whom question his ability to influence the more important matches.
Ferguson has been making strenuous efforts to bring in another midfielder, with United bidding unsuccessfully for Samir Nasri of Arsenal as well as monitoring Luka Modric’s position at Tottenham Hotspur and having brief, exploratory talks with Internazionale about Wesley Sneijder.
The champions have spent €57 million this summer on Ashley Young, Phil Jones and David de Gea but a replacement for Scholes has become a potentially serious issue. Anderson’s form has been erratic, Ryan Giggs is 37 and used only sparingly, Owen Hargreaves has been released and Darron Gibson is available for transfer.
Darren Fletcher has not been part of the tour of the US after suffering a recurrence of the debilitating virus that affected him last season and, though Tom Cleverley has returned after his loan spell at Wigan Athletic last season, United still appear to be lacking a player with the creativity and influence to dictate games.
Scholes this week defended Carrick. “I can’t see why people have problems with Michael Carrick. I found him brilliant to play with.”
GuardianService
