Some very interesting comments i found on him, one thing is for sure United need Mr.Hargreaves.
``There's no getting away from the fact that I was and still am a big fan of Michael Carrick's footballing ability. However, since we have signed him, I have become a little concerned by the fact that I can't see exactly which role he can fulfil for us, given the system we play. Carrick's qualities are obvious in that his long range passing is exemplary, he always makes good use of the ball and it's a credit to him that he always seems to have found himself time and space on the ball. However, his goalscoring record is poor for a midfield player and his tackling is far from good. Given we play an orthodox 4-4-2 every week, where should he be playing? I don't think anybody is going to come on here and tell me he is a winger because I can't see him sprinting down the wings, beating a full-back and planting a ball onto the head of Saha. That leaves the central midfield berths. Could he eventually fill Scholes's role? Scholes was consistently banging in 15 goals a season, something which I believe is almost a requiremnt of playing the attacking/creative midfield role at a big club i.e Kaka, Gerard, Lampard etc. Since I don't see Carrick ever being that prolific and the fact that I don't ever see him having the ability to constantly provide defence splitting balls in the way Scholes has done for years, I don't think he suits this role.
This leaves the much talked about holding midfield role. Now our next game is against Reading away and I'm sure that in this game as well the vast majority of home games this season, this is where Carrick will play. That is absolutely fine in games where we are going to dominate possession but less so when this is not the case. He is not going to disrupt opposition attacks. He is not going to win the ball back on a regular basis. And the biggest thing, I think is that Sir Alex agrees with me on this point. My evidence? I believe the fact that he picked O'shea against Arsenal ahead of him was beacuse Fergie predicted a physical game.........``
``When i think of Carrick, two games in particular come into mind. Real Madrid at the Bernabau and Milan at the San Siro. Both game we couldnt get near any of their midfields, simply outplayed by the passing ability of zidane & pirlo respectivly. With carrick who can develop into a pirlo type player i dont see us having those problems to much in the future. Plus, unlike veron, carrick can already play in the premier league.
Having said that we still need a more aggresive ball winner like Hargreaves but certainly dont feel carrick was a bad buy.``
``I think Carrick will be suited perfectly in an attacking 4-5-1 formation, but we need Hargreaves. Saha up-front; Ronaldo and Rooney providing the width with the freedom to drift inside to support Saha. Scholes in the middle of the park doing his surging forward runs (that he is so good at). Carrick as the deep-lying playmaker and Hargreaves as the holding player who breaks up play. The rest you already know. Giggs O'Shea, Evra, Silvestre and Solskjaer will be rotated. But we need Hargeaves for this to work, because Carrick with Scholes in a conventional 4-4-2 is just plain crazy, particularly in Europe where they will completely dominate posession over us, and I don't mean the likes of Celtic, I mean AC Milan, Roma, Barca, Lyon or even Porto.``
