Re: Carrick "can't tackle", to quote from UnitedRant's boards...
some guy called vainbugger said:
Some stats from skysports: (courtesy of redcafe)
Tackling
..................Player............ Tackles ..........Tackle %
1 ................Michael Essien... 106 ..............69%
2 ................Frank Lampard... 100 ..............73%
3 ................Claude Makelele ..97............. ..69%
Passing
................Player ............Passes...... Pass %
1 .............fatty...............2,015 ........76%
2 .............Makelele...........1,601 ........74%
3.............dirty Essien ......1,447 ......76%
Carrick
Total Passes 1,938
Pass Completion % 80%
Tackles Made 135
Tackles Won % 74%
Interesting. So, Carrick does tackle, doesn't he?
He made a few good points to the United pessimists in that post, actually. Notably...
1) Carrick will only cost £18.6m if we get the PL & CL. If we get both, I'd be happy with that cost.
2) Carrick is 25 and has roughly 8-9 years in him. Ruud is 30 and has roughly 2-3 years in him. Ruud not only performed poorly at the WC, but also wanted to go and the manager wanted him to go - there was never a chance of him being expensive.
3) Why didn't we go for Carrick at West Ham? Because he wasn't as good as he is now. He'd have not played as Keane and Scholes would have never given him a chance in the past two years. Only now is he able to get a shot.
4) 10.5 (RVN) + 6 (obi mikel) - 14 (Carrick) = 2.5 mil. Effectively we have
gained £2.5m this summer. Nobody knows how much money the Glazers are wanting to put into transfers (it might even be nothing) but if it's anything close to the commonly estimated £20m, we've still got £22.5m to spend (although I'd be surprised, personally).
5) Some fans have been accusing the Glazers of not providing SAF with a budget (we have no transfer kitty!!!) and ironically some are claimly we are overpaying. Something is strange here, if we already have no money, how can we afford to overpay?
6) Last year we had a crap midfield, this year we'll possibly have a crap forward set. We still made a bloody good amount of points last year, we should be able to do the same this year, makeshift or not.
7) Saha isn't as bad as people make him out to be. How many goals did he score in how many starts last season? I can't say for sure but I'm pretty sure that in the second half in particular it was impressive enough to push one RVN out of the fray. So if he can do that for half a season, why not a full season? If he stays fit he's good to go. Time can only tell, mind you.
8) As always, we have depth for the future.
Optimism > Pessimism.