What has happened to Casemiro? The Manchester United midfielder exposed, isolated and bypassed

The defenders have gotten extra Premier League assists than the midfielders and the forwards have between them. The defensive midfielders have thrice as many league objectives as the numerous forwards have mustered. Welcome to Manchester United, the place few issues go fairly as deliberate, the place Saturday’s spectacular salvage job from a fan who has been on the books for 20 years concerned a brace from Scott McTominay, not Marcus Rashford. They trailed for an hour in opposition to Brentford. It is the form of situation during which managers not often change their prime scorer.

Yet as their main marksman is one other defensive midfielder, Casemiro, that was not essentially the most notable factor of his half-time elimination. Nor, even, was it Erik ten Hag’s considerably brutal clarification for introducing Christian Eriksen. “I wanted more football,” the United supervisor stated. “Someone who brings passing and link-up play.”

The Brazilian had introduced passing: he handed the ball to Bryan Mbeumo to set Brentford on their manner to an opener, a objective for which he arguably made three errors. And but the pertinent half was merely the actual fact he was taken off. Ten Hag’s talismen are not untouchables. Rashford has been taken off within the final three video games, every at some extent when United wanted a objective. And if means that neither standing nor final season’s excellence can shield them endlessly, it’s also a sign that every ranks amongst this season’s disappointments.

All of which meant Casemiro’s standing as an award winner was revealing of a wider malaise at Old Trafford. He had received September’s player-of-the-month prize with a whopping 70 per cent of the vote. Perhaps a tour de pressure within the Carabao Cup victory over Crystal Palace, together with some recency bias, helped. Maybe a brace in opposition to Bayern Munich did, too, although it got here too late to be related. Yet it pointed to an absence of alternate options: by Casemiro’s requirements, he didn’t play properly in September.

It will probably be nonetheless extra damning if he retains the award for October. Casemiro’s two appearances this month have ended early: despatched off in opposition to Galatasaray, hauled off in opposition to Brentford, there have been two warning indicators. The first got here from the officers, the second from the supervisor. If his crimson card within the Champions League owed a lot to Andre Onana, with Casemiro’s determined slide at Dries Mertens coming after the goalkeeper had coughed up possession, it nonetheless felt symbolic.

Casemiro’s tackling approach means he goes to the bottom too usually. As he’s getting slower, he’s likelier to foul. The bare eye suggests he has been uncovered, isolated and bypassed too usually, partly when Ten Hag’s ways have left him stranded behind Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount. The statistics present the supposed ball winner is regaining it much less usually. In flip, which will imply he’s despatched off extra usually.

Casemiro is making fewer interceptions: 0.69 per 90 minutes, in contrast to 1.43 final season and 2.17 for Real in 2020-21. His 2.91 tackles per 90 minutes is down from 3.77. He is successful fewer than half of his duels, in accordance to Soccerment statistics. To put it one other manner, the defensive midfielder will not be defending the defence. The objectives and assists that he, Scott McTominay and the again 4 have gotten are welcome however the defensively minded personnel have failed to do their day job too usually. If Onana is the obvious perpetrator, he isn’t the one one.

The intriguing factor was that, arguably, Brentford was the primary time the place Casemiro started in midfield however not because the holding participant. With Sofyan Amrabat beginning in his most well-liked place, ending the unsuccessful experiment of deploying the Moroccan at left-back, Casemiro was usually discovered in additional superior areas.

As Ten Hag indicated, Eriksen is extra of a playmaker and was then granted these duties as a substitute. Yet as Casemiro’s United profession exhibits, he could be each scorer and creator. He has the expertise to contribute as every. Perhaps his future may lie as a constructive presence. Yet he was purchased as a damaging one.

His rising immobility supplies a priority that this isn’t only a lack of kind or a problem with United’s ways. There is the chance to search for extra solidity by pairing Casemiro and Amrabat in entrance of the again 4. But there’s the ticking timebomb that got here together with his switch.

Real Madrid pensioned Casemiro off, taking £63m for a participant in his thirties. He has virtually three years left on one of many largest contracts in United’s historical past. He wouldn’t be the primary participant to be paid to decline at Old Trafford; maybe now Ten Hag has signalled to Casemiro that he has to show he isn’t a fading pressure, that his previous and his Champions Leagues are not any assure of a spot when Amrabat may play as a substitute. “In football, it is eat or get eaten,” the United supervisor stated. If Casemiro polished off the partnership with McFred, Saturday was one of many best days of McTominay’s United profession, and among the many worst of his.