Why Fletcher and Carrick are Good Enough

Over the last couple of seasons, and especially this and the previous campaign, has Manchester United's midfield been heavily under-fire due to lack of creativity and x-factor. The following explains why neither Darren Fletcher or Michael Carrick are the right ones to blame for United's midfield being boring and below the required level.





By @Nicopoleides 


The Scotsman and the Englisman have been playing toghether for United since the arrival of the latter in the summer of 2006. United's performance and entertainment level, was definitely good enough during the two following campaigns, but from there, it has only dropped, with some decent games once in a while. This has resulted in supporters shouting for Fergie to add another central midfielder to United's squad, claiming neither Fletcher or Carrick are good enough to play for the Red Devils. I agree that a transfer would be spot-on, but I  disagree that none of the mentioned are good enough for this club.



The main problem is that both Fletcher and Carrick need to play alongside a more offensive-minded player to make their contributions most valuable to the team. Someone like Scholes, Giggs, Anderson or Cleverley. A duo like that will make Fletcher/Carrick operate like a shield in front of the defence: Carrick mainly because of his great positioning and ability to intercept passes, added onto his high passing accuracy, Fletcher because of his non-stop running and tackling, while the more attacking-minded central midfielder can have more offensive tasks on the pitch, added to the general running and defensive work required for a central midfielder in the Prem. (The latter means that luxury players like Sneijder and Nasri aren't the ones to sign, as they got way too little experience in a midfield duo and is used to only have offensive tasks in what has become known as the Rooney role behind the striker.)



In other words, the use of either Fletcher or Carrick requires more of a two-way player alongside the one of them playing, as the pairing of them isn't good enough in attacking terms. If you take a look at Tottenham, both Fletcher and Carrick are able to do the Scott Parker job brilliantly, but as we speak we need a player to become our Luka Modric, able to contribute both ways. That will make Fletcher or Carrick look far better without any major change in their game, and it will make Manchester United better as a team.