When Thomas Tuchel was parachuted into Chelsea mid-season four years ago, he actually arrived by plane. And on it, he devised the tactics that propelled a team who had languished in mid-table in the Premier League to Champions League glory. It involved a change of shape, to a 3-4-3 formation.
When Michael Carrick was taken from the relative obscurity of being a former Middlesbrough manager and given the Manchester United post for the rest of the campaign, the situation was different; the solution too. Carrick veered away from a 3-4-3 system, the easiest and most popular thing he could do. An Old Trafford season ticket holder could have spent much of his time in the stands contemplating what he would do with the players he inherited – though, when asked, Carrick showed his innate ability to downplay and deflect. “Not consciously really,” he said last week. “I think it's obviously something that clicks into gear when you think maybe it might be on my toes to do something about it.”
