Michael Carrick

M

Mwelolo

Well-known member
I was excited by MC’s appointment and immediately took to someone who comes across as such a decent, genuine bloke.

As a rookie he hit the ground running and results blossomed, largely due I think to a fully firing and free scoring turnaround from Akpom. Also assisted by Giles’ left foot and later two loans from Villa, thanks mainly to Danks I suspect.

Then towards the end of the season injuries kicked in and everything started to become derailed, we were toothless in the playoffs and missed out on our golden opportunity to get money in the bank and get out of this league.

This had been the first major test for this still rookie coach and he struggled.

Where was the senior, experienced coach we heard about to support and develop him?

Nowhere.

Instead he got Woodgate, a recent proven failure at this level.

Not good enough, MC was let down.

We come to the start of the next season and MC has lost/is losing all of his best players and the Recruitment Team has done very little about this.

We start to lose games and then the window shuts.

It looks like MC has been left with a bag of light weight bit part players. First impressions suggest they are nowhere near good enough to meet expectations.

We continue to lose, the displeasure increases and the booing begins.

I really feel for MC because he didn’t assemble this bag of misfits but he is the one standing on the touch line, which can be a very lonely place, who is going to continue to take the flak if things don’t improve markedly.

Where will this rookie turn for support and guidance, maybe a call to Sir Alex?

Shame he doesn’t have such a person to work with him here, as promised.

We know that MC has his frailties, as do many others , and I do fear that if things continue as they are the whole process could ruin Carrick as a manager.

That would be extremely sad and in my view it would be down to the club’s failures.

Let’s hope the team can learn to win games and it doesn’t come to this.
 
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Agree with most of that but a few questions remain:

- Did the recruitment team not bring in Giles, Lenihan, Steffen and some of MC's other impressive players last season?

- Where were our Villa loans this season from Danks? (We could really do with a player like Iroegbunam. I see Hull signed Philogene - two missed opportunities there in my opinion).

- Weren't people fully praising the Carrick/Woody team when things were going well? If so you can't put it down to Carrick not having an experienced head.
 
Colin Warnek said:
Agree with most of that but a few questions remain:

- Did the recruitment team not bring in Giles, Lenihan, Steffen and some of MC's other impressive players last season?

- Where were our Villa loans this season from Danks? (We could really do with a player like Iroegbunam. I see Hull signed Philogene - two missed opportunities there in my opinion).

- Weren't people fully praising the Carrick/Woody team when things were going well? If so you can't put it down to Carrick not having an experienced head.
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Yes, they did bring in other players who were beneficial, I was focusing on those who I personally felt had the greatest impact.

I don’t know if Danks tried to influence anyone else at Villa or if this was sanctioned by the Recruitment team.

I was always concerned about Carrick’s lack of senior support, even for that period time when we were winning games.
 
I don’t think any club barring those with Parachute money could necessarily replace 4 loan players who are now PL / Champions League players.

We’re restricted by FFP which means the days of spending our way out of trouble are gone.

I’m sure we could have looked to mirror last season and tried for another 5 PL Loans but then if we don’t get promoted we’re back to square one.

The club have obviously made a conscious decision to change our recruitment policy and part of that is reducing the amount of loans. Carrick seems to be in agreement with that, and I think most fans are as well.

Likewise looking to buy younger with scope for development. Great in principal but it’s a massive shift in the space of a season given the quality we’ve lost.

We should have a few more points on the board this season. We don’t and the reality is that losing can become a habit just as quickly as winning can become a habit.

On Saturday we looked out of sync as an 11. A number of times players would look to make the right pass but the execution was off or the other forward made a different run and we lost the ball.

I think we’re suffering from a lack of confidence and some are trying a bit too hard - Rogers was a prime example. Too many times trying something clever when the simple option was often the better one.

No doubt about it, Carrick has a huge job on his hands to mould this side together and improve some of the individuals. I think he probably needs to tweak the shape and start playing his best players - IE. McGree for starters.

I think it’s way too early to be calling for anybody’s head. We need to get that first league win asap really and hope the squad get a bit of a confidence boost. At the moment they’re playing like strangers, so this 2 week break comes at a good time for us.

I understand people’s frustrations on both sides of the equation. People can rightly criticise and others are looking at the bigger picture and not trying too downbeat. I was so disappointed after Saturday that I have basically avoided talking about the Boro for the last 36 hours until the dust settled a little.

It looks like a long road ahead, but we just need to get that first win and see where it takes us. The sooner we can start building some confidence the better. If we’re still in a similar position come October - November time, then I’ll start worrying. This season looks to be one which will be transitional barring an unbelievable transformation. Now more than ever, the fans need to stick with the Manager and team.
 
If you take Carrick at his word, he has repeated a few times at press conferences that he is happy with his squad. I know you wouldn't expect him to say recruitment has been dire, but he could have voiced some concerns and did not.

There is some promise in the players he has at his disposal. I think Rogers will be great for us, but he did struggle on Saturday. Likewise silvera.

He also has a fair number of players who were a success last season, albeit we did loose some very creative players in the summer. He choose to play silvera and rogers ahead of mcgree and forss (though I think Forss has a knock). He even kept silvera on when choosing to change things.

I am adamant that he took lathe off to save him from himself. The lad has missed too many chances and his confic=dence would have started to ebb away.

I suspect he wants those new players to turn their performances around and wants to give them a chance to do that. Perhaps they look much better in training when there is no pressure on them.

Let's not forget we didn't get the rub of the green on saturday and on another day we score first and go on and win, despite what was a poor performance.
 
On The Bob said:
I don’t think any club barring those with Parachute money could necessarily replace 4 loan players who are now PL / Champions League players.

We’re restricted by FFP which means the days of spending our way out of trouble are gone.

I’m sure we could have looked to mirror last season and tried for another 5 PL Loans but then if we don’t get promoted we’re back to square one.

The club have obviously made a conscious decision to change our recruitment policy and part of that is reducing the amount of loans. Carrick seems to be in agreement with that, and I think most fans are as well.

Likewise looking to buy younger with scope for development. Great in principal but it’s a massive shift in the space of a season given the quality we’ve lost.

We should have a few more points on the board this season. We don’t and the reality is that losing can become a habit just as quickly as winning can become a habit.

On Saturday we looked out of sync as an 11. A number of times players would look to make the right pass but the execution was off or the other forward made a different run and we lost the ball.

I think we’re suffering from a lack of confidence and some are trying a bit too hard - Rogers was a prime example. Too many times trying something clever when the simple option was often the better one.

No doubt about it, Carrick has a huge job on his hands to mould this side together and improve some of the individuals. I think he probably needs to tweak the shape and start playing his best players - IE. McGree for starters.

I think it’s way too early to be calling for anybody’s head. We need to get that first league win asap really and hope the squad get a bit of a confidence boost. At the moment they’re playing like strangers, so this 2 week break comes at a good time for us.

I understand people’s frustrations on both sides of the equation. People can rightly criticise and others are looking at the bigger picture and not trying too downbeat. I was so disappointed after Saturday that I have basically avoided talking about the Boro for the last 36 hours until the dust settled a little.

It looks like a long road ahead, but we just need to get that first win and see where it takes us. The sooner we can start building some confidence the better. If we’re still in a similar position come October - November time, then I’ll start worrying. This season looks to be one which will be transitional barring an unbelievable transformation. Now more than ever, the fans need to stick with the Manager and team.
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The trouble is many people have invested in the team by finding hard earned money to buy season tickets and expected us to hit the ground running. These fans are disgruntled with how things are panning out and rightly so. I agree that loan players can be great for a team but how do you replace them when they've gone?

As you say, it is a long road ahead with a lot of points to still play for. We need the fans and players to come together as one during this difficult spell and start moving in the right direction.
 
Mwelolo said:
I was excited by MC’s appointment and immediately took to someone who comes across as such a decent, genuine bloke.

As a rookie he hit the ground running and results blossomed, largely due I think to a fully firing and free scoring turnaround from Akpom. Also assisted by Giles’ left foot and later two loans from Villa, thanks mainly to Danks I suspect.

Then towards the end of the season injuries kicked in and everything started to become derailed, we were toothless in the playoffs and missed out on our golden opportunity to get money in the bank and get out of this league.

This had been the first major test for this still rookie coach and he struggled.

Where was the senior, experienced coach we heard about to support and develop him?

Nowhere.

Instead he got Woodgate, a recent proven failure at this level.

Not good enough, MC was let down.

We come to the start of the next season and MC has lost/is losing all of his best players and the Recruitment Team has done very little about this.

We start to lose games and then the window shuts.

It looks like MC has been left with a bag of light weight bit part players. First impressions suggest they are nowhere near good enough to meet expectations.

We continue to lose, the displeasure increases and the booing begins.

I really feel for MC because he didn’t assemble this bag of misfits but he is the one standing on the touch line, which can be a very lonely place, who is going to continue to take the flak if things don’t improve markedly.

Where will this rookie turn for support and guidance, maybe a call to Sir Alex?

Shame he doesn’t have such a person to work with him here, as promised.

We know that MC has his frailties, as do many others , and I do fear that if things continue as they are the whole process could ruin Carrick as a manager.

That would be extremely sad and in my view it would be down to the club’s failures.

Let’s hope the team can learn to win games and it doesn’t come to this.
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He's has 12 new players, the club have backed him.

People will say that they're not the same quality as the £50m that went out the door and I agree, but that's why we had to get promoted last season. A big reason we didn't was because he only has one way of playing and when he came up against an opposition manager who outthought him he didn't know what to do.

People say these are all new players and the need time to gel, but he's dropping establish players to put more of the new players into the team. Dropping the likes of McGree, Forss and Jones to play as many of the new players as possible rather than slowly integrating them.

Kieron Scott didn't tell Carrick to play Rogers or Crooks as a striker. Or to drop McGree, or to bench a striker and play a midfielder up front. That's Michael Carrick. Just as I'm pretty sure it was Michael Carrick who decided to leave Silvera on the pitch on Saturday.

If this was any other manager people would be asking serious questions about him, 0 wins in the last 10 league matches is not a blip.
 
Mwelolo said:
I was excited by MC’s appointment and immediately took to someone who comes across as such a decent, genuine bloke.

As a rookie he hit the ground running and results blossomed, largely due I think to a fully firing and free scoring turnaround from Akpom. Also assisted by Giles’ left foot and later two loans from Villa, thanks mainly to Danks I suspect.

Then towards the end of the season injuries kicked in and everything started to become derailed, we were toothless in the playoffs and missed out on our golden opportunity to get money in the bank and get out of this league.

This had been the first major test for this still rookie coach and he struggled.

Where was the senior, experienced coach we heard about to support and develop him?

Nowhere.

Instead he got Woodgate, a recent proven failure at this level.

Not good enough, MC was let down.

We come to the start of the next season and MC has lost/is losing all of his best players and the Recruitment Team has done very little about this.

We start to lose games and then the window shuts.

It looks like MC has been left with a bag of light weight bit part players. First impressions suggest they are nowhere near good enough to meet expectations.

We continue to lose, the displeasure increases and the booing begins.

I really feel for MC because he didn’t assemble this bag of misfits but he is the one standing on the touch line, which can be a very lonely place, who is going to continue to take the flak if things don’t improve markedly.

Where will this rookie turn for support and guidance, maybe a call to Sir Alex?

Shame he doesn’t have such a person to work with him here, as promised.

We know that MC has his frailties, as do many others , and I do fear that if things continue as they are the whole process could ruin Carrick as a manager.

That would be extremely sad and in my view it would be down to the club’s failures.

Let’s hope the team can learn to win games and it doesn’t come to this.
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Edit: my text disappeared on posting 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, I think the decision making at Boro is very mixed and we get many big calls wrong. Scott‘s appointment should be starting to show dividends now, we appear to be on a different pathway from last season. It is disappointing as a fan as we believed we were on the up, rookie manager wise beyond his years, quality coach in Danksy coming in, trusted with quality loans and showing really entertaining attack based football.

Some of us had serious concerns over the summer recruitment before a ball was kicked. The friendlies highlighted those concerns. Defence having more holes than a colander, midfield fragile and swamped and attack being lightweight became evident as each game has progressed. The window shut without an experienced goalscorer and worries in other areas unresolved.

Carrick has gone all in saying it is his squad, his team, total faith in his players. He is saying all the right things a media savvy coach should say, but the performances and outcomes tell a different story. He has his work cut out. I don’t buy his recent message which I feel was more for the squad than the fans, fair enough though. I think he is a good coach, understands the game and in Danksy has a good coach. On paper we should better than our position, but some trends are worrying and need instantly addressing.
1. Conceding the 1st goal in every game.
2. Failing to put away some simple goal opportunities
3. Basic errors a decent Sunday League team wouldn’t make like failing to close down near the box, failing to press high up, sloppy passing, allowing opposition overloads, players getting dragged out of position leading to loss of shape.
4. Inability to cause danger at set pieces
5. Ball watching (see Bolton game for their goal and subsequent 1 on 1)

I could go on and as the faithful keep saying, we are only 5 league games in.

I do have faith in Carrick to overcome some of the issues, I trust him and believe he will give 100% to try to resolve the problems. To do so I think he needs to use all the experienced players he can for now to achieve some form of stability, but he can’t avoid playing some of the inexperienced lads as we have a squad full of them.

He has been let down imho by Scott and others, silk purses and sows ears spring to mind. My fear is if things don’t improve the wrong man pays the price while the person I see as the real pantomime villain gets away Scott free. All my pre season hope has unravelled and I would snap your hand off for a mid table finish right now. Some things can be coached, some things can’t be, instinct, speed of thought, every player is different and each has a ceiling that needs raising asap.

As I finished typing, I realised George Michaels Faith was on the radio, is this Michael Carrick sending us all a subliminal message across the airwaves, I hope so.
 
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InglebyUTB said:
People will say that they're not the same quality as the £50m that went out the door and I agree, but that's why we had to get promoted last season. A big reason we didn't was because he only has one way of playing and when he came up against an opposition manager who outthought him he didn't know what to do.
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That's the sort of criticism that can be placed at the door of every manager.

For example, Pep couldn't find a way to score past Chelsea in the Champions League Final after going behind with 70 mins still to play. On the day he was out thought by Tuchel, but does that mean Tuchel is a better manager? Or is it sometimes advantageous as the underdog to set up your team to counter the strengths of the supposed better team?

As for the OP and the suggestion Carrick needs a father figure to guide him, personally I disagree. MC was well prepared for his first stint in management and I am sure he is confident in his ability to work out how to turn things around. If he wants to be a top manager, he'll need to do that himself and not rely on a more experienced manager to tell him what to do. In short, he's the manager and needs to manage. I also think he deserves to be given the time to do that, as frustrating as it might be for us fans at the moment.
 
The suggestion Carrick has been let down by the club not bringing in some experienced mentor is ridiculous.

He's not got one because he doesn't feel he needs one I'm guessing. He's his own man. Why on earth would the club block it? And I'm sure Carrick alone could convince any number of experienced coaches to come in and work with him if he wanted.

I'm sure I'll moan about any number of his decisions over the course of the season. But then opinions, particularly footballing opinions are like ****. aren't they? Everyone has one. I completely back him though.
 
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WilliamMunny said:
That's the sort of criticism that can be placed at the door of every manager.

For example, Pep couldn't find a way to score past Chelsea in the Champions League Final after going behind with 70 mins still to play. On the day he was out thought by Tuchel, but does that mean Tuchel is a better manager? Or is it sometimes advantageous as the underdog to set up your team to counter the strengths of the supposed better team?

As for the OP and the suggestion Carrick needs a father figure to guide him, personally I disagree. MC was well prepared for his first stint in management and I am sure he is confident in his ability to work out how to turn things around. If he wants to be a top manager, he'll need to do that himself and not rely on a more experienced manager to tell him what to do. In short, he's the manager and needs to manage. I also think he deserves to be given the time to do that, as frustrating as it might be for us fans at the moment.
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Carrick is trying to a play a system that is similar to Pep. It works when you have the best players. Pep has the best players in the league to work with everywhere he has managed. He can afford to be patient. He knows it will come good.

Carrick doesn't have that luxury. If it's not working then he needs to look at a different way of trying to get the squad he's got playing winning football. We don't have the best squad in the league. We look short all over the pitch. Maybe he has to look at being a bit more pragmatic. Even if it's short term.
 
WilliamMunny said:
That's the sort of criticism that can be placed at the door of every manager.

For example, Pep couldn't find a way to score past Chelsea in the Champions League Final after going behind with 70 mins still to play. On the day he was out thought by Tuchel, but does that mean Tuchel is a better manager? Or is it sometimes advantageous as the underdog to set up your team to counter the strengths of the supposed better team?

As for the OP and the suggestion Carrick needs a father figure to guide him, personally I disagree. MC was well prepared for his first stint in management and I am sure he is confident in his ability to work out how to turn things around. If he wants to be a top manager, he'll need to do that himself and not rely on a more experienced manager to tell him what to do. In short, he's the manager and needs to manage. I also think he deserves to be given the time to do that, as frustrating as it might be for us fans at the moment.
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That's a one off game, Carrick failed over 2 legs after going into the semi-final in poor form as teams had begun to figure out we literally had one way of playing. It was obvious the moment the 2nd leg team sheets landed that Robins had changed their shape to counter us. After 45 minutes it was clear we needed to change as it wasn't working. Yet he waited until we were 1-0 down before changing anything.

It would be less frustrating if he actually learned from that experience, but it's clear this season he's learned nothing. It's the same way of playing, subs are all like for like, the midfield is still getting overran.

He's not learning.
 
I thought we started ok on Saturday, but when the breakthrough didn’t come lost any fluency. We then conceded a wonder goal just before half time and our already fragile confidence is then shattered.

Carrick needs his leaders on the pitch and maybe naive in placing too much reliance on new players. Next game, get Crooks, Forss, McGree, Smith and O’Brien in and hopefully we’ll respond better.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
The trouble is many people have invested in the team by finding hard earned money to buy season tickets and expected us to hit the ground running. These fans are disgruntled with how things are panning out and rightly so. I agree that loan players can be great for a team but how do you replace them when they've gone?

As you say, it is a long road ahead with a lot of points to still play for. We need the fans and players to come together as one during this difficult spell and start moving in the right direction.
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Agreed. Whilst I might not always agree with some of those screaming and shouting, I understand that they want to watch decent football and be entertained, as we all do. A lot of people invested on the back of last season and so far we’ve nowhere near those standards.

I’ve got no issue with people expressing their opinion. We all pay our money, we are all entitled to it.

Like everything in life, not everything is black and white and not everything is easy. There’s nuance to every situation especially in sport.

Re: the loan signings, I agree. It’s a never ending cycle of large scale rebuilding if you rely heavily on loans. Unless of course you can get promoted and sign them permanently.

The argument I keep hearing is that we haven’t replaced Giles, Akpom, Archer, Ramsey.

Quality-wise that’s 100% true, but you’re not going to replace those players in the markets we’re competing in as those players cost big money. Giles maybe slightly different but something has obviously went on there and we’ve been beaten to that signing.

So people are either advocating bringing in more loan signings or expecting the club to spend money it doesn’t have. We’ve got to move on from last year and hope Carrick and work magic with the new look squad, and it’s not going to happen overnight.
 
Carrick needs help & i hope he gets it over the international break by bringing in a experienced manager to help him out on the sideline when he looks lost what to do.
 
InglebyUTB said:
That's a one off game, Carrick failed over 2 legs after going into the semi-final in poor form as teams had begun to figure out we literally had one way of playing. It was obvious the moment the 2nd leg team sheets landed that Robins had changed their shape to counter us. After 45 minutes it was clear we needed to change as it wasn't working. Yet he waited until we were 1-0 down before changing anything.

It would be less frustrating if he actually learned from that experience, but it's clear this season he's learned nothing. It's the same way of playing, subs are all like for like, the midfield is still getting overran.

He's not learning.
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You start by saying the CL final was one game then state that Robins changed his team for the second leg to counter us - which was also one game! Anyway, my point is that any time any manager loses a big game, people will question his decision making. That's the same if it is Pep, Klopp, Arteta, Tuchel, despite these being proven top class managers.

I understand why you and others want him to try something different. I am not averse to changing shape/tactics/personnel at all. I do however defend MC for sticking with his preferred set up for several reasons. Firstly, it worked brilliantly for most of last season. Secondly, I would rather have a manager with a belief in what he is doing as opposed to someone floundering around with different formations every game hoping that something eventually works.

Finally, and most importantly, we added 3 players to the squad last week but none of them were here long enough to start. A couple of weeks earlier, Latte Lath and Engel were added to the squad and thrown straight into the first team out of necessity. At the same time Howson was rushed back and a week later Tommy Smith, to disastrous effect! Coburn is only just fit as well. All of this has made it impossible for Carrick to so far set up with the players he wants in the first 11.

I am not for one second saying Carrick is beyond criticism or that the current run of results in not a concern. However, I've felt for weeks that the team we see after the first international break will be the one to judge our season's prospects on. The squad is set now and MC has to start delivering results one way or another with the players at his disposal. Whether that is playing 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 3-5-2 or any other formation, that's up to him, but I have seen enough positives over the past 10 months to keep my faith in MC for a good while longer.
 
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