Gary Neville absolves Michael Carrick of any blame for “absolute stain” on Man Utd players

Michael Carrick deserves a lot of blame for things going wrong at Man Utd, but Gary Neville doesn’t think he’s to blame for one “absolute stain” on the players.

From baffling team selections to confusing tactical templates and losing the dressing room on top of it, Michael Carrick is firmly in the firing line.

In fact, it can be argued that the only reason why he hasn’t been sacked yet is that the fans supported him against Bournemouth, albeit for different reasons.

Amidst all this, one criticism constantly used to beat Carrick has been given a new dimension by Gary Neville.

Gary Neville absolves Michael Carrick of running critique

Something that has repeatedly come up while criticising Carrick at Old Trafford is the lack of dynamism in the squad, on and off the ball.

United rank at or near the bottom of every running stat this season, from distance covered to sprints to high-intensity runs, there just hasn’t been enough output physically.

Generally, that wouldn’t be that big a problem if United were maintaining north of 60% possession in every game, but that’s not happening.

Carrick brushed off this criticism earlier as too simplistic, but walked back on it after the loss to Como in response to Bruno Fernandes questioning his tactic.

He demanded more from the players, which is why Neville, speaking on The Overlap, doesn’t think Carrick is to blame for the players not putting in enough effort.

He said: “Michael Carrick, believe it or not, was a positional player, but he wouldn’t think that his football team shouldn’t run. So those running stats are an absolute stain on that group because the reality of it is, you can be clever and say that we’re a positional team and that we’re winning football matches and we don’t run, but if you’re losing every single football match, which they are, and you’re not running, then that’s a problem.”

Carrick might have tried to defend the players when the running stats emerged, but it has quickly become clear that the lack of effort is not tactical, but mental.

Now that we know that the dressing room isn’t entirely behind Carrick, it’s not hard to decipher the true meaning behind those numbers.

Carrick can vouch for a possession game that aims to beat opponents with brain rather than brawn, but no manager would ever ask his team to run less.