{"id":713988,"date":"2026-07-27T18:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713988\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T18:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:12:11","slug":"manchester-united-are-trying-to-buck-a-premier-league-trend-and-its-all-down-to-michael-carrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713988\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United are trying to buck a Premier League trend and it’s all down to Michael Carrick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Carrick has an idea of how he wants Man Utd to play next season but it doesn’t fit within the current tactical trends in the Premier League.\"Michael<\/p>\n

Manchester United’s coaching staff are trying to build a team that can control games next season<\/p>\n

The trends in the Premier League last season weren’t difficult to see. It was about set-pieces, it was about duels, it was about physicality and very little of it was about control.<\/p>\n

As more and more teams focused on man-marking, it felt like games became about 11 distinct battles. Win more of them and you could claim territory, earn attacking set-pieces and eventually win the game through that approach.<\/p>\n

What was often lacking was teams being able to get into a rhythm and bring some control to games. Even Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City<\/a>, previously the masters at this, struggled to exert authority from midfield on occasions.<\/p>\n

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It also feels like the Premier League’s intensity has gone up recently. It certainly did last season. Space has been at more of a premium than ever and those midfielders who look to get on the ball, make short passes and control a game have struggled to do so.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the Premier League is less about possession now than it has been for a long, long time. Two seasons ago four teams averaged more than 60% possession in a game and six had more than 58% per game.<\/p>\n

Last season, only City had more than 60% and that was only just (60.5%), while only one other team (Chelsea) had more than 58% possession. It seems a clear trend that there are fewer teams concerned about possession and more focused on the duels within a game that can be so decisive now.<\/p>\n

All of which makes what Michael Carrick is doing at Manchester United<\/a> particularly interesting. United lost a physical midfielder who could hold his own this summer, with Casemiro leaving on a free transfer. The plan to overhaul the centre of the pitch has focused on technical skills rather than physicality.<\/p>\n

So far, United have signed Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans this summer. Both have Premier League experience, so it won’t be a shock to them, but part of the attraction of signing them from Chelsea and Aston Villa, respectively, was that they are high-level technical midfielders with excellent passing ranges.<\/p>\n

That has been the focus of recruitment at Old Trafford this summer, and it’s clear Carrick wants to turn United into a team better able to control games and dictate the pace and tempo of play. He has repurposed Mason Mount as a deep-lying midfielder to further aid this plan.<\/p>\n

This is going to be a fascinating development in Carrick’s team heading into next season. This is his first transfer window to put a stamp on his team and the first pre-season to really focus on tactical changes.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it’s no surprise that Carrick looks keen to build a midfield in his own image. In his playing days, his work as a deep-lying midfielder was all about passing and controlling a game with the ball, rather than without it. It worked for a United team that enjoyed plenty of the ball.<\/p>\n

That’s what Carrick wants to see his own team do now. Even in the Championship at Middlesbrough, he built a team that wanted to play with the ball, signing Aidan Morris to add passing quality. If there was a criticism at the Riverside, it was that control never amounted to enough penetration in the final third.<\/p>\n

The challenge now is that the approach is bucking the current Premier League trend. Possession seems harder than ever to keep, but United look like a team focused on what they can do with the ball.<\/p>\n

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