muttley
Alert Team
I've got to disagree; Carrick's key strength and playing position was as a deep lying playmaker where his almost uncanny ability to pick a pass, and deliver it was probably one of, if not the best I've ever seen. He was a true Quarterback, who could play any pass he liked under pressure - a rare talent.
But his tackling was often less than great, he didn't score many goals, and he wasn't a true B2B player - in his heyday, in fact if anything the reason so many were marmite on him was because he could be frustratingly lazy at times, and the fans would know it. Fergie knew this and put him alongside players that compensated for these weaknesses. He had no steel and wasn't a leader.
It's a player without his weaknesses we need, even if they aren't the greatest passer.
TBH, that's fair. It's the Carrick attributes that you mention that we need, not the other stuff.
Of course, I'm saying this without knowing much about Bergval. He might have the mid to long range passing. Even Hojbjerg has sprayed some fantastic balls this season and I do remember one amazing cross-field ball from Sarr. That being said, whoever lines up in central defence and centre mid need to a better job than what we've seen this season at progressive passing. They do the 5-aside stuff well but need to find those mid range passes that create space. This was probably where Ange was getting the best out of Matt O'Riley who has now gone on to become a goalscorer as well.
Ultimately, we need to get beyond that point that if you negate Madds, you negate Spurs. Then you negate Porro from the equation like the last couple of weeks and you miss his distribution.