Erik ten Hag gave a coworker from this parish the cold shoulder two weeks ago at Carrington when he brought up Casemiro’s absences and said, “It is fair to say not all of them have gone especially well.”
He was interrupted by Ten Hag, who said, “We did pretty well without Casemiro: against Arsenal, two against Leeds, and I recall some other games where we did really well without Casemiro, as well as at the start of the season.”
The final seven phrases made it clear that the allusion to Arsenal was the away game in January when Manchester United lost and was outplayed in the middle of the pitch. Compared to United’s meagre six attempts, Arsenal made 520 passes, or 124 more than United, won three times as many corners, and held nearly 60% of the ball. The 3-2 result was unfair to United.
Because to his cynical foul on Wilfried Zaha four days prior—his fifth in the Premier League and a clear violation of the bookable offence rule—Casemiro was in Manchester that day as opposed to London. Hence, there was a one-game suspension. Casemiro missed three further games after his altercation with Crystal Palace player Will Hughes was dubiously deemed a red card offence 13 days later.
With 30 minutes left in the first match against Leeds at Old Trafford, United was behind 2-0 but managed to draw. Four days later, when the teams met again at Elland Road, it wasn’t until Lisandro Martinez entered the game to restore the team’s equilibrium that United took control and scored the game’s only goal in the 80th minute.
After a performance that Ten Hag called “rubbish” against Leicester, United was fortunately ahead at the break. Jadon Sancho, who had an immediate effect in lieu of Alejandro Garnacho, was the replacement. United triumphed 3-0.
Ten Hag said that Marcel Sabitzer, an on-loan midfielder who made his full United debut in the draw with Leeds, had interrupted the team’s flow. “They are not machines, first of all, and we need to hire Sabitzer for a critical job. He must then be able to move at the proper times to create the appropriate scenarios. That takes time, but we don’t have that since we need to win games, which means everything must go smoothly.”
When Ten Hag ventured to rest Casemiro during the FA Cup match against West Ham, he called for him during the break and hooked Scott McTominay. That was like sending dad out to fix it, a journalist joked. United came back from a 1-0 deficit to win 3-1, and Casemiro played a key role.
In the FA Cup quarterfinal, Fulham outperformed United for 70 minutes before they collapsed, however, Casemiro was absent due to his third domestic suspension this time. McTominay once more made way as Ten Hag modified his midfield strategy.
Ten Hag might have watched out for my colleague in the post-match discussion had he been present. Marcel Sabitzer, Bruno Fernandes, and Fred all played in central midfield; Fernandes scored two goals, Sabitzer scored the game-winning goal, and Fred earned an assist.
Casemiro won’t be going to Newcastle on Sunday, and if he attends the games against Brentford and Everton at Old Trafford during Easter week, he will be sitting in one of the stadium’s boxes.
The foundation was laid by United’s four-game winning streak in August and September, which included Casemiro being introduced before the exhilarating victory over Liverpool and appearing as a substitute against Southampton, Leicester, and Arsenal. However, Ten Hag was still learning on the job during those early weeks, so there would be no red October. In the 6-3 thumping against Manchester City, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden savagely punished the team for failing to integrate Casemiro.