 In July 2014 , Carrick suffered an injury during a pre @-@ season training session that was expected to keep him out for 12 weeks . Carrick 's first game back from injury came at the 1 – 0 defeat against Manchester City on 2 November 2014 , where he came on as a replacement centre back following Chris Smalling 's dismissal . After Marcos Rojo suffered a dislocated shoulder in the same match , Carrick stated that he would be happy to play as a makeshift centre back . After Carrick returned to the starting line @-@ up on a regular basis , Match of the Day 2 pundit Dietmar Hamann attributed some of Manchester United 's improved form to Carrick 's return in December , after the club had won all of the six games that he had started . Sir Alex Ferguson stated that he thought Carrick was the best English player in an interview with BT Sport in December 2014 , shortly after Carrick had been named as Manchester United 's new vice @-@ captain by Louis van Gaal . 
