Paul Parker is fearful that two Manchester United players could get ‘exposed’ in Michael Carrick’s first game in interim charge against Manchester City.
Carrick is about for a tricky test in his first game back within the Premier League dugout as his side host City at Old Trafford in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off.
The previous United midfielder is predicted to stick to the back 4 utilized by caretaker boss Darren Fletcher in a transparent parting of the way from the 3-4-3 system used throughout Ruben Amorim’s unsuccessful tenure.
Carrick’s time at Middlesbrough saw him deploy an attacking, possession-based 4-2-3-1 system, but Parker feels that would leave certain United players vulnerable against Pep Guardiola’s in-form side.
Specifically, the previous Red Devils full-back has questions marks over United’s full-backs, who he believes can have a tricky day in store against City’s wingers, Jeremy Doku and Antoine Semenyo.
‘Well, you don’t must be an ex-full-back or an ex-defender. you’ll be able to be the person on the road, and you recognize that the full-backs that United have gotten are going to struggle,’ he told Metro via online casinos UK.
‘Dalot and Shaw are going to struggle pace-wise. And since there’s no, at this moment, out-and-out defender there, you recognize they’re going to get exposed in one-against-ones.
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‘In order that’s going to be a giant, big problem for Michael Carrick, and usually what it will mean is that you just would use one in all your wider players to assist by attempting to enable you to by not allowing the ball to get to the feet of those players too far up the park.
‘When it gets near the goal and you then’re slightly bit more congested as a team, compact, then yes, you’ll be able to understand it and that makes it easier because there’s more players around. However the very last thing you need to be doing is getting caught too far up the park one-against-ones.
‘That’s going to be the issue because there’s going to be a whole lot of acres for people to run in behind. So it’s going to be a large problem. I don’t know the way Michael Carrick goes to take care of that.’
Morocco’s progression to the AFCON final means United will again be without Noussair Mazraoui, who has proved the club’s best defensive full-back since his arrival from Bayern Munich.
And Parker believes that the 28-year-old’s presence might be sorely missed by Carrick, especially relating to nullifying the blistering pace of Doku on the left wing.
‘Mazraoui would all the time be the primary shout because Mazraoui at right-back could be absolutely perfect,’ he said. ‘Mazraoui at left-back could be much more perfect up against Doku.
‘l get groin strains just watching him play, to be perfectly honest. The stop and starts, wow. That’s one I wouldn’t need to play against.
‘You give me Semenyo slightly than Doku, to be perfectly honest. Because as defenders, you don’t need to stop and begin.’
But no matter absentees and City’s impressive form, Parker urged Carrick to attempt to instil a little bit of confidence in his side ahead of a vital second half of the season slightly than simply sitting back and playing for some extent.
‘I feel the very first thing really for Michael Carrick is to attempt to get a performance, that’s what he’s in search of,’ he added.
‘In the event that they sit deep and just clear their lines and just hope that they get something out of it they usually suddenly do get something out of it, that’s probably not good for Manchester United or Michael Carrick, in my view.
‘It’s about some sort of performance that gets the players to specific themselves. And in the event that they get beat, they get beat. But there has got to be a technique in what he’s attempting to do.’
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