I have to admit, I always thought that Carrick was a bit under-rated. Certainly under-used by England. He had a lot of technical quality and rarely gave the ball away. He was one paced, but so are other players who play in a similar position such as Basquets and obviously Pirlo. Not to say Carrick was on either of their level, he wasn't, but he was still a very good player.
Carrick was a fantastic player, only thing is his defensive side of the game didn’t get good till the later stage of his career. I don’t mean tackling I mean his positioning, at United it really improved. Prior to that he was seen as a luxury player, amazing on the ball but could leave the defence open.