Michael Carrick is about to see his dream midfield – playing against Manchester United

Man Utd play double European champions Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday and Luis Enrique’s side are something of a benchmark for Michael Carrick.

It won’t be a full-strength Paris Saint-Germain side that Manchester United face in Gothenburg this weekend, and the beating heart of Luis Enrique’s brilliant side might not all be present, but for Michael Carrick, the game will provide a chance to see how his own creation shapes up against a team that are something of an inspiration.

Speaking before landing the United job, Carrick spoke glowingly about Enrique’s side and said they are a team he would have loved to have played for in his prime. So much of their success is built around an ability to keep the ball in midfield and the technical brilliance of players like Joao Neves, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz.

That is exactly the style Carrick espoused as a player. His game was less about physicality and breaking up play and more about setting the tempo through passing and controlling the game.

Now that he has been given the keys to Old Trafford on a permanent basis, Carrick wants to build a midfield that resembles PSG’s, making this week’s game in Sweden an interesting barometer.

The challenge for Carrick is that PSG have it easy in Ligue 1 and can rotate so heavily in domestic competition that their best players are almost always fresh for the Champions League. The Premier League offers a different test and while Carrick wants control, the trends in this country have moved away from that approach.

Instead, last season was about duels and physicality and set-pieces. Perhaps there will be a reversion to something more like the football that Carrick admires this season, and if there is he wants to be leading the charge.

As a head coach at Middlesbrough and United, he has preached possession as a fundamental principle to his style. This pre-season is the first chance he has had to really put a fresh stamp on the team he inherited last season.

He has signed two midfielders with high-level technical ability and has repositioned Mason Mount as a deep-lying midfielder capable of dictating a game through passing rather than physicality. Carrick wants a United team able to keep possession and dominate teams with the ball.

Barcelona used to set the standards for that in Europe, but it feels like the mantle has been passed to PSG and Carrick hasn’t hidden his admiration for what they do.

“Of course they’re winning, but it’s the way they play that really stands out,” he said. “The midfield rotations, the constant connections, the quick, short passing… it’s exactly the kind of football I enjoy.

“Then you look at the pace, movement and energy of the forwards. The way they attack space is incredible and, as a midfielder, that’s the dream because you’ve always got options ahead of you.

“You’re constantly involved, always getting on the ball, always looking to play forward and keep the game flowing. That’s the kind of football every midfielder loves.

“They’re simply a fantastic team to watch.”

There are enough clues there to realise it’s a style Carrick would love to implement now he has a two-year contract at United and on the evidence of the club’s transfer activity and pre-season so far, that is what he is trying to do.

Mount and Kobbie Mainoo fit that bill, as do £50million Andrey Santos and £35million Youri Tielemans. That quartet could yet be strengthened in the final weeks of the summer window.

They will still have some way to go to rival Vitinha, Neves and co in Paris, and will have to do it in a far more demanding league, but the template for Carrick’s dream United midfield seems clear.