I was thinking about our reliance on Carrick and how as a deep-lying playmaker he is instrumental to our team. Upon thinking about who could replace him (Blind, Herrera, Weigl, Carvalho, etc.) I realised that Chelsea are flourishing without a playmaker in midfield. They have Fabregas in the squad but don't apply him, instead opting for 2 energetic players in the centre of the park (Matic and Kante) and 3 centre back to cover the defensive duties that a deeplying midfielder would take on. Could this approach work with our team? It is clear that there is no one quite like Carrick: we could seek a replacement but his passing and overall intelligence is unparalleled. With our current squad we could line up without Carrick like this.... -----------------------de Gea----------------------- -----------Smalling----Bailly----Rojo-------------- -Valencia--------------------------------Shaw--- --------------Herrera----------Pogba-------------- ----Mkhitaryan--------------------Martial------- ---------------------Ibrahimovic-----------------

With the defensive cover of 3 centrebacks, Pogba - and herrera to an extent- would be freed to roam the midfield; dominating games. We must remeber that Pogba thrived at Juventus in a 3 at the back formation. In addition to releasing Pogba, we know that this system require energetic, attack-minded, defensively sound, wingbacks. We already have these in the form of Valencia and Shaw, Daley Blind has played LWB for The Netherlands and Ashley Young played as a wing back under Van Gaal so could be used as rotation options in case of injury or suspension. Another way the 5 at the back has benefited Chelsea is that it has relieved the wingers of defensive responsibilities. Hazard effectively has a free role in this system where he, and his forward compatriots, can attack with the knowledge that Alonso and Moses are covering the flanks. We could use this with a front 3 of Martial, Zlatan, and Mkhitaryan or even with Rashford incorporated as one of the - notional - wide men. The system has 3 complete attackers; 3 complete defenders; and 4 players who can interchange between attack and defence with their work rate and energetic intelligence. I can see this as a future system for Manchester United without Michael Carrick, while still getting the best out of Pogba and releasing our attackers to flourish. Any thoughts?