MICHAEL Carrick's big opening night ended with him playing a bit part in a stunning Amsterdam drama.
The é18.6m new-boy looked slick and composed in front of the back four for the 76 minutes he was on the pitch - while all around him hell was being let loose by crazy refereeing.
The dismissals of Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes, who had both scored, put a terrible dampener on a night which offered hope and a fair few answers to United fans who have been wondering who will score the goals for the Reds this season.
Carrick's incisive passing always looked like opening up a wobbly Porto defence, and with Scholes and Rooney scoring stunners, and Solskjaer conjuring up a seemingly impossible third, some fears began to be soothed with the 3-1 win.
Scholes opened the scoring from a re-working of his old corner-kick routine with Ryan Giggs. The skipper floated the ball to Scholes, clearly over the worst of his eyesight problem, 25 yards out, and he dummied to shoot with the right before switching to his left and hitting a screamer into the bottom corner.
Nine minutes later Rooney added a second, charging down Jose Bosingwa's lazy clearance and racing through to finish with a delicious dink over goalkeeper Hilton.
Rooney was given his marching orders after 40 minutes and Scholes followed after 68, but the Reds went further ahead when Solskjaer, after good work by sub Kieran Richardson, found himself tight to the by-line. As the defence waited for his cross, the Norwegian somehow squeezed the ball into goal.
Pepe, the culprit in Rooney's dismissal, crashed home a 25-yard drive with 14 minutes left, but United earn six points from the win - three for the victory and one for each of their goals - before heading into tonight's match with hosts Ajax.
UNITED: van der Sar (Foster 61), Bardsley, Evra, Brown, O'Shea, (Simpson 59), Carrick (Martin 76), Park (Fletcher 73), Scholes, Giggs (Richardson 68), Rooney, Solskjaer.
What is your verdict on Carrick's debut? Have your say.
Comments
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When is Fergie buying Torres and either one of Hargreaves, or Mascherano or Senna?
Fergie surely you understand better than us Toores, Rooney and Ronaldo as a forward line
with Carrick, Scholes and one of the above CM plus the defence we already have will make us
truely competetive on all fronts.
Too early to say much about a cool player. While all hell broke loose around him he was very assured in his performance.
i thought he was quiet myself 6/10 at best sure he passed a couple but he also mispassed a couple as well. didnt look an 18 million pound player to me on that performance lets hope saturdays game is better
Yea great to see Carrick play we can now wait for Marco Senna the Monster to join us next week.
Carrick really pleased me he did a very good job in the middle of the park he will be a good assets to manutd. United for life till death do us part
I love you all united fans around the globe .
i need a manutd friend.my e-mail is solarijose@yahoo.com
At least he had the sense to stay on the pitch!
Carrick did well and his passing was impressive. However this season he has to take his game to a new level and take more control. He has to dictate the tempo of the game and show more authoritive. Although labelled a defensive midfielder it is clear that tackling is not his strength. He is more of a deep lying playmaker like Xabi Alonso or Pirlo. The signing of Marcos Senna will be important because his game is based on defensive play and breaking up attacks. Carrick can develop his game but it will take time, and working with Senna and Scholes everyday will help him this season.
Carrick is class. I believe even if we dont sign another striker we will score MORE goals this season. Carrick is superb at holding the ball and I believe he will be a key member of our team for many years.
Neil (Manchester), agree with your sentiments entirely! I feel Mascherano is the DMC we should persue though, Senna would be just a bandage for a couple of seasons and Hargreaves, well a good player no doubt, but really not sure where his best position is and to me he's not commanding enough for the DMC role we so badly need. As for strikers Torres is class but so is Tevez, Torres has dug his heals in for this season I'd be prepared to wait a season if we could sign a pre-agreement for next, but failing that I'd want Tevez now!
Cheers
Guy
the refereeing was nothing short of shameful, how did Rooney get sent off for contesting anarial ball? he didn't do anything wrong, his arm cam down with his body and the porto gguy beneath him made no attempt to get out of the way, he was the one fouling for standing directly beneath Rooney and obstruting him.
would be a shame if scholes and rooney face bans - after all - this is only preseason.
carrick will be good i think. it looks as though we will sign senna this week- rather than mascherano or hargreaves - a shame, but senna will be ok i think. i truly believe that if we broke the bank for torres now we would win the premiership.
Most (positive) notable thing of the evening for me was the performance of Ben Foster.
Why oh why are we wasting more money on the WBA pole??? Keep Foster and give him some games.
lets put it this way michael carrick is quality.imagine if we bought essien how devestating he is one of the worst ripped off players
No question if we get Senna and Torres/Tevez and play a 4-3-3 formation we will be a force. Don't know what Scholes was going through in the way of petty fouls agaist him but Alex should have had him off right after the yellow.
You would think someone would be able to sit down with Ronaldo and go over a game like this and explain that all this play acting is not on.
I'm getting pretty sick of it which is why if I could trade Ronaldo for Torres I would do it just to get Torres then sign either SWP/Lennon/Joaquin. SWP is a buy at 12 million. Lennon will be great.
Anybody else like Ronaldo for Torres?
Carrick can forget about his debut for us for the time being!
Ok, let's re-sign Nicky Butt.
He played well last week.
Seriously after Senna the striker is of paramount importance.
Go for Lua Lua, as I don't think Tev??z is a starter.
Up The Reds
In answer to the comment about foster - if he stays as VDS backup then he'll end up with no football at all next season, apart from the odd little game here & there e.g. grimsby in the league cup. One more season on load won't do him any harm
Well i think We are going in the right direction with the signing of Carrick and the imminent arrival of hopefully a class DM.. i seriously think Chelsea will not gel this season saw them gainst the Mls all stars tho it was their first game they still didnt look good the special one will have to be at his tactical best this season with his array of talent to win anything...
Unsurprising that this thread is so light on posts whilst all the doom-laden ones are filled to the rafters with the usual negative suspects. Does nobody want to at least come on here and acknowledge that Carrick looked very good indeed in his first game, striking up an instant rapport with Scholes and Giggs? Does nobody want to admit that his passing looks exactly what we need? His corners were the most accurate and dangerous we've had for years. So he's out for a couple of weeks, but the big picture is that, admittedly only on first impressions, Carrick looks the business for us. Get Senna in and we'll have two decent XIs again.
terrific
Stu, I thought Carrick looked very good in his first game, he struck up an instant rapport with Scholes and Giggs. His passing looks exactly what we need and his corners were the most accurate and dangerous we've had for years. Can't wait to see him in action in the PL.
hahahaha Alias, you card you!