Rate Carrick's overall performance as Manager out of 10

parmoboy

Well-known member
There seems to be a growing feeling of discontent with Carrick at the moment, so I thought it would be interesting for us all to rate his overall performance as manager since he took over.

6.5/10 for me.

First season did well to get us into the play-offs considering our league position when he took over, but having no Plan B in the semi-final after going a goal down vs Coventry cost us.

Second season essentially became a write-off due to injuries and I don't think our squad was good enough for the play-offs. 8th place finish felt respectable given the circumstances.

Performances this season have been underwhelming, yet we still find ourselves in a play-off position at present. We play good football at times but Carrick and his coaching team simply have to find a way of breaking teams down who come to the Riverside and set up with a low block. Going out of both cups at the first hurdle now puts even more pressure on him to get us into the play-offs at the very least.
 
7/10
Excellent first season
Reasonable second season
Jury's out third season - I'd be happy with the playoffs but anything less has to be a disappointment.
 
7.5/10 overall for me. Largely been the best manager other than AK for us since the halcyon days of cup finals, silverware and European football.

Find it more than a little frustrating that we don't mix it up a bit more as playing out of defence all the time often causes us problems of our own making. Additionally, teams don't need to second guess what we're going to do so can press a few yards further up the pitch. Sometimes I just want to see a long ball, a knock down and someone getting a shot off. Of course I mostly want to watch good football and we do play good football a lot of the time. But we make it easy for teams to play against us as a result.

I also think we're missing leaders on the pitch. When AK was here we had George, Ben Gibson, Ayala, Clayton and Leadbitter who were all big presences on the pitch. We lack that now and that's not necessarily down to Carrick.

I think the reason it's frustrating is that we're so near to being successful. We have a good squad of players and on our day we can beat anybody in this league. It's the lack of consistency that is killing us and you never imagine us going on a 5 or 6 game winning streak.

I still think he has the makings of a good manager and overall it's been an enjoyable couple of years under him. He has to start showing signs of learning and changing things around when needed soon though.

If not I fear we might see someone like Sean Dyche coming in to complete the dinosaur football philosophy we had under Pulis and Warnock. Not that he'd want the job given how much he hates us.
 
7/10
Could do better.
I think he probably should be doing better, if I’m honest.
When we are good, we are very good, but at all other times the same old familiar weaknesses keep rearing their ugly heads…….We’ve had the same flaws for the best part of two years now, and it’s concerning that we seem no further ahead in terms of addressing them.
I really want Carrick to succeed. He’s a good guy and has us playing some great football at times. He is so close to being a good manager, but it’s a fine line between success and failure and it feels like this is a bit of a make or break period in his tenure.
 
8/10
49% win rate
Brought on many players that we have or will sell for much money than we paid
Bringing through youngsters and giving them game time
Downside is very rarely changes tactics and doesn't use subs effectively. He will be hitting most of his targets set out by the club.
 
8/10

His success is to a large degree reliant upon the club getting the recruitment model right and so far we look to be doing that.

But under any model progress isn't linear, more so where a club relies upon developing players and selling at a profit.

Progress will be incremental and take time, including periods where we will appear to regress, but the overall trajectory is a healthy one.

If the club, or more accurately the fans, give him enough time he'll get us up, but reading this thread and others on the subject shows how little patience many fans have got.
 
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I moan about him but I still feel he, his football is what I want at the Boro, but **** me he needs to make playing us at the Riverside a difficult prospect for the away team and not the home fans. I was going to say get rid of him if he couldn't manage 2 wins out of 4 matches over the holiday period, there was 3 matches at home in that period, but the 0-0 at home to Burnley makes me think bit by bit he is sorting out our defensive set up.
7/10
 
6.5 / 10 .. Needs to sort out the dreadful home performances and results. Ironically, I think he'd do better with a mid-table Prem Squad than a top 6 Champ Squad.

Needs more "Championship" in his approach and less "Pep" .. When it's good - it's good - but that depends if the opposition is going to allow us to play or not. When they decide not to (spoilsports!) then we look ponderous and bereft of ideas. Sometimes, even for just 10 minutes in a game, you have to put aside your principles and do what you have to do to get over the line and get the result. Until he learns this then he's going to have a difficult job getting us promoted.

We might scrape into the playoffs this year, we might not. I really have no idea.
 
6/10. Other than a great first season, it’s been pretty much business as usual. I find the football incredibly tedious at times, particularly at home.

I’d have him on a par with the job Pulis did for us in terms of success thus far. His football’s better.
 
6/10. You could forgive last season at times due to injuries.

This years weakness at home is starting to become his fault in my opinion as he’s had enough time to address it.

What I don’t understand at the minute is why we are so slow with the ball in the final third against the low block. We rarely take a risk to break them down, but we seem to take risks with passing around our own box creating chaos.
 
I agree with the 2 posts above by Tired Alan and Dave Doriva.

The football we play seems to only be effective away. At home we are tedious, boring and ineffective unless the away side rock up without doing their homework or simply want to have a go at our place.

It is blindingly obvious we need to be able to change the approach at home, but evidently it’s not being done, it’s Groundhog Day at the Riverside and that sits squarely at the feet of Carrick and the management team. There are not even any small signs of, at least he has tried this or that but it didn’t work - it’s just the old definition of insanity on repeat.

WRT recruitment, we are absolutely on the right trajectory with that and kudos to the club and in particular Scott for the great strides in that area. Also, kudos to Carrick for working well and developing some of those incomings to the assets they are / have become.

Overall, I would give Carrick a 6.5/10. His first season was a joy to watch but the early signs were there regarding the inability to affect games in motion…..but he had a lot of credit in the bank due to the football we were watching and of course he was an almost complete novice.

The second season started woefully and that was Carricks fault. He though by throwing all the new signings in at the start would work….it did not and took some amount of time to realise they needed more work and that he needed his established players to guide them through. Then was the ridiculous injury situation, which I’m not convinced was pure bad luck but hey ho.

Finally, this season showed so much promise and had fans so excited, but for reasons previously mentioned, it just isn’t hitting the mark many believe it should, throw in there 2 despicable cup exits for good measure. There is still time and yes we are still in the playoff places somehow and there will always be hope.

If we don’t reach the playoffs, Carrick needs to be replaced for me. If we do reach the playoffs, it will depend on how they play out. If we get promoted, then I’ll absolutely eat humble pie.
 
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