#2 Michael Carrick
On the shores where the game was invented, the ideal central midfielder has long been seen as the tough-tackling, hard-shooting, box-to-box types and the most popular ones - Big Duncan Edwards, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, et al – have all adhered to that common formula.
So when a tall, almost dainty, Geordie set about displaying to the “blood and thunder” world of English football that the art of dispossessing an opponent without involving the medium of a barnstorming tackle was not the sole province of those “fancy Europeans”, they were a little taken aback.
Well, they must have been! How else can you explain the fact that the man who has almost single-handedly held together the midfield of Manchester United for nearly nine years has been capped only 33 times for the English national side?
Sir Alex Ferguson, though, certainly recognised the air of calm that Michael Carrick brought to proceedings; his metronomic forward passing (and the uncanny ability to pick out a killer ball – like this beauty against Chelsea in the FA Cup) and natural ability to read the game and position himself at exactly the right spot more than making up for his utter lack of pace.
Louis van Gaal acknowledged his integral importance as well – United have lost only two of the 20 games he has played in this season – and as the most underrated English footballer of his time winds up yet another excellent season, maybe the English national setup will to
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s the always excellent Gary Neville analyzing just how Carrick protects his defense so well:
Titles – 1 x Club World Cup, 1 x Champions League, 5 x Premier League, 2 x FA Cup, 3 x League Cup