{"id":3325,"date":"2017-02-12T16:23:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T21:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=3325"},"modified":"2017-02-12T16:25:52","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T21:25:52","slug":"michael-carrick-midfield-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2017\/02\/12\/michael-carrick-midfield-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"Replacing Michael Carrick: The Players Who Could Fill The Role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United have been\u00a0enjoying a strong run of form recently.\u00a0Unbeaten for more than three months, the club&#8217;s\u00a0last Premier League defeat came at the hands of Antonio Conte\u2019s Chelsea back in October.<\/p>\n<p>Only Hull City have\u00a0had the better of them since that day, though the Tigers&#8217;\u00a0EFL Cup win in the second leg of the semi-final did not count for much. A major reason for that renaissance has been the re-emergence of Michael Carrick, and his invaluable ability to control most games.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Replacing Michael Carrick: The Players Who Could Fill The Role<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Carrick has\u00a0been\u00a0often underrated\u00a0during his ten-and-a-half years at Old Trafford and, at 35 years of age, it doesn\u2019t look like Carrick will be a consistent figure in the side beyond next season.<\/p>\n<p>Several replacements have been touted, and several have arrived in recent years including Morgan Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera and Paul Pogba. But none of them have been able to pull off the dominance in midfield as extraordinarily as Carrick does.<\/p>\n<p>Although Carrick\u2019s contract is set to be extended until at least next season, we review three players that Manchester United\u00a0supporters can look to when the Englishman does eventually leave the Theatre of Dreams.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Jorginho<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A Brazilian-born Italian international, Jorginho has been a key member of Maurizio Sarri\u2019s Napoli resurgence that has propelled them to the Champions League this season. A player that\u2019s meant to dominate the midfield, Jorginho completed more passes than any other player in Europe\u2019s top\u00a0five leagues last season. A sensational talent when it comes to defending, he is usually the guardian that protects the Patronepei back-line.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jorginho: Is the only player in Europe\u2019s top 5 leagues this season averaging over 100 passes per game (100.2) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ONp2hthBWE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ONp2hthBWE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhoScored\/status\/708295201266073601\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 11, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A proper midfielder who is fantastic with both feet, Jorginho is as good in a box-to-box role as he is in a defensive role, and is highly composed on and off the ball. Often compared to Andrea Pirlo for his brilliant ability to pick out a pass from deep in midfield, Jorginho is tipped for great things for both club, wherever that may be in the future, and country, where he has earned two caps.<\/p>\n<p>Jorginho has been in Italy all his life, having represented Hellas Verona before he moved to Napoli, and his record in Italy\u2019s top flight has been remarkable. His record for defensive actions including interceptions and blocks are amongst the best in a country that produces top-quality defenders, and looks like\u00a0the\u00a0ideal replacement that Manchester United have been craving for to take over from Michael Carrick.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Toni Kroos<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Not much has to be said about Toni Kroos, as his record speaks for itself.\u00a0He is a\u00a0World Cup winner and a two-time Champions League winner, as well as multiple league titles and domestic cups for two of the biggest clubs in European football (Bayern Munich and currently, Real Madrid).<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old has been a pillar in midfield for all of his clubs and would be the perfect Manchester United and Jos\u00e9 Mourinho player.<\/p>\n<p>Arguably the best passer of a ball currently playing in Europe, Kroos, when compared to 35-year-old Carrick, brings out the same credibility as the Englishman. Over the last two seasons, Kroos has played eight more games than Carrick (46 to 38) and had an incredible pass completion rate of 94% last season, as compared to Carrick&#8217;s 86%.<\/p>\n<p>Kroos also adds one more attribute to\u00a0the team than Carrick does, as he is the man behind Real Madrid\u2019s free-kicks and corner-kicks.<\/p>\n<p>He is\u00a0even touted by one former Manchester United hero. Gary Neville regards him alongside Luka Modric, Sergio Busquets and the retiring Xabi Alonso as one of the men to replace the current United number 16. At only 27 and with an improving Manchester United side, the time would be right for the East German-born Kroos to drop the white of Madrid for the red of Manchester.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Timothy Fosu-Mensah<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Manchester United\u2019s world-famous academy has produced fine talent over the years, and currently supplies the likes of Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard to the first team. But one man who sits in the Carrick role is Timothy Fosu-Mensah, who has performed well for the reserves and the\u00a0youth sides over the last three years.<\/p>\n<p>Fosu-Mensah has a fine aptitude with the\u00a0senior\u00a0squad and is a fan favourite, having made his first team debut against Arsenal last season under the tutelage of former boss Louis van Gaal. The 19-year-old Dutchman has had a less significant role this season under Jos\u00e9 Mourinho, only featuring sporadically in the\u00a0EFL Cup, FA Cup and Europa League matches.<\/p>\n<p>But he\u00a0is still tipped for a bright future, considering his versatility and command in the various positions he can feature in.<\/p>\n<p>Even able to fill in at full-back or at centre-half, he has\u00a0displayed various talents to the Old Trafford faithful and is often referred to as \u201cFosu-Immensah\u201d for his ability to cover large ground so efficiently.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/630148090\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin: 0px; left: 0px; top: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%; display: inline-block; position: absolute;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/630148090?et=5zrhxwFQTX5FhxBmFomImA&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=2UqPWWy0rf--27MigBiqEOicYtKTBdOAlXep060mhGs=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United have been\u00a0enjoying a strong run of form recently.\u00a0Unbeaten for more than three months, the club&#8217;s\u00a0last Premier League defeat came at the hands of Antonio Conte\u2019s Chelsea back in October. Only Hull City have\u00a0had the better of them since that day, though the Tigers&#8217;\u00a0EFL Cup win in the second leg of the semi-final did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":3332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,3],"tags":[324,896,138,36,810,40,182,894,530],"class_list":["post-3325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-italy","tag-jorginho","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-manchester-united","tag-michael-carrick","tag-premier-league","tag-real-madrid","tag-timothy-fosu-mensah","tag-toni-kroos"],"modified_by":"Roy Emanuel, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}