People questioning Michael Carrick’s elite coaching pedigree are missing the point about his past, where he worked under someone who transformed him.
The results speak for themselves in Michael Carrick’s case, but only at Man Utd can a manager with a sub-40% win rate be considered a project, and Carrick be considered a risk.
A section of people just refuse to see Carrick as anything more than an overqualified man-manager, which is infuriating.
That is because Carrick’s coaching pedigree comes from working with a huge number of elite coaches, one of whom transformed him.
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Michael Carrick credits Louis van Gaal for transforming him
Carrick hasn’t only played under Sir Alex Ferguson, but he has also worked under Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Playing under Sir Alex is no guarantee of managerial success, just ask Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, but working as a staff member is genuinely a huge boost.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Carrick named Van Gaal as the one who transformed him the most among the elite coaches he played under and worked with.
He said: “I’d say tactically, probably Louis van Gaal was really good. Some of his ideas and his training methods were slightly different from what I’d come across before.
“He did teach me a lot about the side of the game that I hadn’t really thought about before.”
Van Gaal was hardly the most successful coach at Man Utd post-Ferguson, but his tactical nous is undeniable.
Perhaps, combining his tactical ability with Sir Alex’s man-management skills is what makes the perfect Man Utd manager.
If that is the case, Carrick is doing a fine job of being as close a replica of that concoction as possible.
Shades of Van Gaal in Carrick’s coaching
Watching Carrick’s style of play, it’s clear that he has taken some bits and pieces from each manager he has worked under.
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He hasn’t been able to show it all because of the circumstances in which he took over at Old Trafford, but his Middlesbrough side provides an example.
Carrick combines Van Gaal’s positional dominance based on possession with Jose Mourinho’s mid-block and Solskjaer’s counter-attacking threat.
The difference is that possession under Van Gaal was often sterile, but there is a purpose to it under Carrick.
He’s effectively the best of both worlds when he has the squad to do so, combining the athleticism of a Mourinho team with the technical skills of a Van Gaal side.
Add to that the “Man Utd DNA” passed on by Solskjaer, and the sky is the limit for Carrick.
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