The answer to Jose Mourinho’s Paul Pogba problem at Man United is simple: Michael Carrick

For the past 10 years, Michael Carrick has been United’s metronome – the man who sets the rhythm, the tempo. United have always played to their midfield maestro, writes Steve Luckings.

Manchester City's Sergio Aguero, left, in action with Manchester United's Michael Carrick. Jason Cairnduff / Reuters

In the grand scheme of things, elimination from the fourth round of the League Cup is not going to determine whether Pep Guardiola’s first season in charge at Manchester City will be judged a success or failure.

A 1-0 defeat inflicted by City's bitterest rivals, Manchester United – a team managed by Guardiola's nemesis Jose Mourinho – brought with it an unwanted milestone in the trophy laden career of the Catalan: a sixth game without victory.

The temerity of the man! Losing football matches! Just who does he think he is? How dare he not follow up 10 straight wins with another 10. Although defeats across three competitions – to Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur and United, direct rivals in Europe and the Premier League – should cause concern, we are not quite at the point of widespread panic just yet.

Across town, though, the win will no doubt have allowed the abyss of depression threatening to engulf Old Trafford to dissipate. One only has to scroll through the respective teamsheets to ascertain which manager was taking this game more seriously.

See also:

• Andy Mitten: Jose Mourinho receives League Cup respite — now to get Man United back on track in the league

• Premier League predictions: Man United bounce back in style, Chelsea face tough Southampton trip

Mourinho wheeled out the big guns of David de Gea, Daley Blind, Juan Mata, Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, while Guardiola, despite fielding several regular first-team players such as Nicolas Otamendi, Fernando, and Kelechi Iheanacho, included two young Spaniards in Aleix Garcia and Pablo Maffeo – the latter making his City debut.

The most telling inclusion in the United line-up though was Michael Carrick. A mainstay under successive managers during his decade-long stay at Old Trafford, from Alex Ferguson to David Moyes to Louis van Gaal, the midfielder, 35, has been discarded by Mourinho.

Mourinho is yet to give him the same full-on cold-shoulder treatment afforded to Bastian Schweinsteiger, the decorated German midfielder and World Cup-winning captain who Mourinho left in no doubt that his future at Old Trafford was about as bright as the inside of a rabbit hole. Carrick has been relegated to bit-part player, called upon only for League Cup duty having also featured in the third-round win over Northampton Town.

Much of the negative criticism directed at Mourinho has focused on how the Portuguese has tried and failed to solve the issue of Wayne Rooney, first shoehorning him in and then out of the team, and finding a fixed position for the world’s most expensive footballer Paul Pogba. There is also the mysterious and continued absence of Armenian playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan – not to mention the fact that a team that lacked frisson last season made an ageing Ibrahimovic its totem in attack despite being as mobile as Nelson’s Column. But few have mentioned Carrick’s absence as a reason for the team’s indifferent form.

It may be a bold statement but Carrick is one of the most accomplished – and underrated – English midfielders of the past 20 years.

For the past 10 years, Carrick has been United’s metronome – the man who sets the rhythm, the tempo. From headbanging heavy metal designed to distort and disorientate the opposition or mellow lounge music to calm those losing their heads around him, United have always played to their midfield maestro.

His range of passing – long and short, left foot and right – should mark him as one of the first names on the United team sheet.

Mourinho’s myopia means he cannot see that the solution to the Pogba problem is right under his nose. Playing Carrick at the base of midfield would allow the Frenchman to flourish further forward, while Carrick’s precision passing and spatial awareness would add more arsenal to the attack and protection to the defence.

Any worries that age has caught up with the 35-year-old former England international’s legs need only look at the way he kept pace with the freshly introduced Sergio Aguero in the final 10 minutes of Wednesday’s match, eventually drawing a foul from the Argentine to relieve the pressure on his team.

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