Michael Carrick has received glowing praise from Sir Alex Ferguson ahead of Sunday's return to West Ham, the club where he learned his trade.

Ferguson described the midfielder as a "terrific footballer" and pointed to the development of Carrick's defensive game as as a catalyst in his becoming a key player for United.

What Michael always had, even in his younger days at West Ham, was that vision to hit a pass of good range, either short or long," said Sir Alex, in his pre-match press conference.

He could open up defences, he has always done that. What he's acquired coming here is that he has developed physically and has improved tremendously on defensive play.

He holds positions and nips off threats towards our back four really well. That part of his game has improved to a really top level. People maybe don't recognise that.

In terms of recognition, or rather the lack of it, Sir Alex compared Carrick to ex-player Denis Irwin. 

The quieter types sometimes get overlooked by fans and by the press," he said. 

"Denis Irwin used to give you 8 or 9 out of 10 every week, but he never had the celebrity status of others around him like Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Eric Cantona and Mark Hughes.

Denis was a quiet lad, went about his business, was a great professional, and gave you a performance every week. Michael Carrick would come into that category."

Recent displays have brought Carrick to the fore, however, not least his man of the match performance against Everton last weekend and his contribution to the 2-1 FA Cup victory over Tottenham.

In the cup tie, Carrick freed Berbatov to score the winner with a sublime through ball against their mutual former club. No doubt Michael, who spent six years at Upton Park, will be gunning for a similar performance on Sunday