CARRICK’S DOWNFALL In terms of tactics and personnel, Carrick’s downfall this season comes down to these key points: ▪️the 4-2-4 press got figured out completely, and already last season it was the weakest aspect of Carrick’s tenure. Opponents freely luring & progressing through wide areas at will, no real attempts fo fix it for months now. Total lack of coordination, chemistry and basic understanding between the players, leading to mistakes in timing, intensity, shape, angles ▪️this season’s half-baked sttempt to increase in-possesion control backfired dramatically and led to a static, undercoached attack, not dynamic, not automated, not positional. @cirotexts refers to it as a static-positional approach. United lost the transitional threat and gained nothing in settled play, rendering us impotent when attacking both behind and in front of the line ▪️as one of consequence of this change, we stopped using Dorgu as the LW, which had a substantial negative effect: while clearly a limited player, he’s a rare width holder & natural runner in the squad, who provided a lot of balance to an unbalanced front line. The correct solution was to upgrade our wide options, currently dire, which is the club’s failure ▪️on his good day and when used well, Casemiro was a cheat code for team. His excellent quick progression abilities, positioning and especially set pieces dominance, as noted by @umirf1, have not been adequately replaced. His goals from set pieces were of extreme value in many tight games. Again, the correct solution for lies in recruitment It’s an unfortunate situation. Carrick was failed in the market, for sure, but Carrick also failed with what he had at disposal, and failed severely. Both are true.