Today’s performance was poor. The team lacked creativity and there was no cutting edge to any of the few attacking forays United could muster. Having played an energy-sapping midweek match against Chelsea, Man Utd were not at their sharpest, but neither were City, so I’m not going to use that as an excuse. Yes, the FA played their part by  making sure Rooney would miss the match, but City’s talisman, Carlos Tevez, was missing too. United could have won the match and will rue not doing so.

Carrick

Oh, Michael. Why? Carrick is probably the most divisive Man Utd player along with Dimitar Berbatov and matches like tonight demonstrate why this is so. After several matches in which he was very good indeed, Michael Carrick was partly to blame for presenting City with the opportunity to score. After VDS had made a mess of a clearance, the ball eventually fell to Carrick whose attempted pass to Paul Scholes was intercepted by Yaya Toure, who waltzed into United’s penalty area and scored what was to be the decisive goal.

Michael Carrick was not the only player at fault for conceding the goal, but it did highlight why some fans don’t rate him and even detest him. The incident seemed to knock Carrick’s confidence and he went on to have a poor second half, which is a shame, because he was one of United’s better players up to that point.

To me, some of the criticism that has been hurled at Carrick has been completely over the top and unacceptable. But at the same time, some  United blogs have completely exaggerated Carrick’s ability and performances.

I don’t mind the sideways passes, keeping possession is important. I don’t think that “he never passes forward”, even if it appears that way sometimes. His chalkboards tell us otherwise. I don’t mind that he can’t dribble like Lionel Messi, he doesn’t need to. I don’t mind that Carrick isn’t tough in the tackle like Roy. What I do mind, is that Carrick will often play a safe pass sideways or backwards when a forward pass is possible and would put a team mate into a great position.

What I do mind is the blog articles heralding his 90% pass completion rate, when some of the uncompleted passes are given away very cheaply AND lead to opposition attacks. What I do mind, is that he has the potential to be one of Europe’s best midfield players, but regularly plays within himself,  without any real conviction or determination. At times he has lacked real fight and it’s not uncommon to see him lose out simple duels.

To put it simply, how often does Carrick put in a 9 /10 performance vs how often is he so pedestrian that his performance barely merits a 6 / 10 rating? How often does Michael Carrick play well compared to how often he played well in his first season with United?

I hope Carrick can work it out why he does what he does at time. To me the answer seems fairly simple in that he just needs to be more determined and play with fire in his belly. If can do so, he could be top, top midfielder.

Berbatov

Dimitar Berbatov is an incredibly talented footballer. Some of the skill he displayed has been outrageously good. This makes it even more frustrating whenever he doesn’t rise to the occasion. After being benched, but still managing to score against Fulham, I was hopeful that Berba would once again show what he is capable of. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.

Berba missed two glorious opportunities to open the scoring and the missed chances seemed to deflate the team somewhat.  It might seem harsh, but even though Berba is the premier league’s top scorer, he just doesn’t seem to fit  100% in the United team does he? Manchester United strikers tuck those sort of chances away and when given the chance to shine on the biggest stages have ended to produce their best performances, but the same cannot be said for Berba.

Again, this seems to be a psychological aspect and I really do wish he could score the vital, competition-winning goals that a striker of his ability should be scoring.

It has been said that Dimitar Berbatov is a scorer of great goals and not a great goalscorer, but if he could start being both, he would be an absolute sensation.

Scholes

Paul Scholes has got to be one of the best midfield players ever to grace the game. His footballing intelligence is unmatched except when it comes to one aspect – tackling. His poor challenge on Pablo Zabaleta was punished with a red card, which made an uphill battle even harder. I will never understand this aspect of Scholesy’s game and why he never saw it sought to address this area of concern. As much as he wants to win, surely he must understand that he can’t help his team win, if he’s not on the pitch?

When I think about Scholesy’s season thus far, I’m not sure how much he could contribute moving forward. Compared to Giggs, he seems to be a tad off the pace and doesn’t have the impact that Giggsy has. When Anderson came on as a substitute he immediately added drive and directness to the team. It’s not the same as Scholesy’s long pinpoint passes, but maybe it’s more of what’s needed in this current team.

It was very painful to watch Gary Neville’s decline and I sincerely hope that Scholesy hangs up his boots at the right time. I’m not saying he should, but if he’s not completely sure he can have a real impact at Manchester United, it’s probably better if he doesn’t procrastinate the inevitable.