Casemiro does so much for Manchester United – he deserves a capable understudy

“Dynamic” has become Erik ten Hag’s chosen word on Manchester United’s pre-season tour.

After using it to describe summer signing Mason Mount, the United manager has repeatedly used the term when asked about his plans in the coming weeks and months.

“We want to play dynamic football,” said Ten Hag before facing Arsenal in New York. “We want to play with speed and to play aggressive out of a very good team spirit.”

This season should see the next stage of Ten Hag’s developmental plan. Bolstered by new signings at central midfield, goalkeeper and centre-forward, there should be fewer instances when the manager needs to try and squeeze square pegs into round holes in order to get a result.

The dynamism that Ten Hag seeks is a type of football where United are better at changing in-game methods in order to deal with a variety of in-game issues. The next iteration of United should be one better at retaining possession, working against the ball when losing it and being more clinical in front of goal.

It is also an iteration that will ask a lot from Casemiro, the only specialist defensive midfielder in the squad and a player who has been a revelation after years of the flawed central midfield partnership of Fred and Scott McTominay.

More than a tough-tackling destroyer, Casemiro’s work in the central midfield pivot has made the team more resilient at defending and better focused when attacking. A deceptively good passer, he was well-suited to a United team that launched more direct attacks than anyone else in the Premier League last season. His match-reading ability made him an essential tool when protecting against counter-attacks and a means of maintaining pressure on opponents.

If United lost the ball cheaply deep in opponent territory, it was often Casemiro who won it back so the team wouldn’t lose momentum. He quickly became a fan favourite and United fans were charmed by a moment in the League Cup final where he told Marcel Sabitzer he need not drop deep into central midfield. Casemiro had things covered. His leadership skills also stood out, with team-mates remarking about the intensity he brought to training and big games.

Casemiro does a lot for United. But at 31, how long can he maintain such heady feats?

The past 10 seasons have seen the defensive midfielder play a tremendous amount of club football. In 2022-23 he racked up 3,903 minutes under Ten Hag. Had it not been for repeated red card suspensions, he might have played more.

Team

Season

Games Played

Games Started

Minutes Played

Real Madrid

2013/2014

25

4

653

FC Porto

2014/2015

39

37

3081

Real Madrid

2015/2016

35

28

2541

Real Madrid

2016/2017

42

37

3314

Real Madrid

2017/2018

48

45

3946

Real Madrid

2018/2019

43

38

3262

Real Madrid

2019/2020

46

46

4080

Real Madrid

2020/2021

46

43

3940

Real Madrid

2021/2022

48

46

3927

Real Madrid

2022/2023

2

1

97

Manchester United

2022/2023

51

43

3903

Playing more than 3,000+ minutes of club football is not new for Casemiro, who has made many deep runs into the Champions League with Real Madrid.

Madrid made the odd attempt at sourcing a deputy for the Brazilian, only to find Casemiro so fundamental to the team’s play and so professional in his physical conditioning and match preparation that any permanent understudy was superfluous. Marcos Llorente was once envisioned as Casemiro’s deputy but played little more than 1,000 minutes across a two-year spell between 2017-19. Llorente would eventually move to Atletico Madrid, where he became the box-to-box midfielder we are well acquainted with today.

After that, Real Madrid managers opted to play one of Toni Kroos or Luka Modric at the base of midfield when Casemiro was unavailable. Few players can replicate his energetic output, so Real Madrid decided to stop trying after a while.

United face a similar problem. Casemiro prefers to keep match-sharp by playing regularly rather than taking breaks, as Ten Hag once alluded. He also remains a crucial figure for his national team, and will look to help Brazil win the 2024 Copa America next June, as well as potentially being involved in three World Cup qualifiers this season.

He can be relied upon now, but will turn 32 partway through a season in which he will be expected to help United compete on four fronts. There will eventually come a time when Ten Hag will have to start thinking about Casemiro’s successor. But this summer, the United manager might need to think about who can adequately deputise for him.

Casemiro was suspended for seven games last season. Ten Hag first opted for a central midfield partnership of McTominay with Christian Eriksen against Arsenal. Then he experimented with a Sabitzer-Fred partnership, a McTominay-Sabitzer combination and a game against Brentford in which McTominay played next to Bruno Fernandes. Every pairing came with complications.

While McTominay is a dedicated United player, willing to serve in a number of positions, his weaknesses in and out of possession mean he is not well-suited to being his team’s deepest midfielder, but instead as an attacking box-to-box man.

Fred improved last season in his games next to Casemiro, but is another box-to-box player – often erratic in his output. Sabitzer was another player better used further up the field and has signed for Borussia Dortmund after an indifferent loan at United.

Casemiro is United’s best bath plug; the player able to protect against defence leaks while maintaining the attacking temperature. His understudies were more sieve-like in their efficiency. Fred and McTominay are considered to be available for sale this summer if a proper suitor and bid can be found.

It is little wonder United have been heavily linked with 26-year-old Fiorentina midfielder Sofyan Amrabat, who has previous experience working for Ten Hag at Utrecht. No formal bid has been made at the moment, however, and any further incomings would first have to be bolstered by funds from any player sales.

This pre-season saw academy graduate Kobbie Mainoo emerge as an alternative. His cleverness when playing on the half-turn and good defensive moments might perhaps mean he could serve as an understudy to Mount or Eriksen as someone who could play next to Casemiro now, before learning the finer points about how to cover for the Brazilian in the future. However, an ankle injury in the friendly against Real Madrid means the 18-year-old will miss “the first part” of the new season.

As Real Madrid learned, Casemiro’s reliability and playing quality make it complicated to find a proper understudy, someone who can cover one of the better defensive midfielders in the world but who is also happy to play limited minutes across a season. Over the past nine seasons, Casemiro has missed only 31 club fixtures owing to injury or illness. Factor in Ten Hag’s reluctance to rotate, and — unless those yellow and red cards continue to stack up — any Casemiro deputy will likely have to make do with domestic cup fixtures at the start of their United career.

In a season that Ten Hag has talked so much about the need for United to be dynamic, much is fixed upon Casemiro being fit, firing and available.

Casemiro does a lot for United. At some point in the near future, the club will have to find a way for him to do less.

 (Top photo: Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)