We didn't play a 'high line' last season.A lot of Football Manager gamers here, “buy the kid”…
The main reason we finished 3rd last season was Casemiro. I have serious doubts that we would have even made Europa with McFred. The post WC run was basically Casemiro and Rashford getting results.
‘So many big goals and assists from Casemiro last season and he helped us get results this season too.
I’m blown away by how many on the Caf are critical of Casemiro here, like our current form is 100% his fault. When we had pace in our CBs last season with Shaw - Licha - Varane - Dalot/AWB, we could play a much higher line, meaning Casemiro and Eriksen had less ground to cover. Varane/Shaw mopped up the balls over the top, and we were compact in defense.
‘Now with Evans/Maguire, they don’t have the speed to cover the balls over the top and so they have to play much deeper. Even worse, Mount isn’t disciplined enough to stay back, Eriksen is too slow/old to cover much ground. McTominay has never been an instinctual defender. What’s left? Casemiro trying to cover those gaps. He gets the blame, but actually it’s a combination of injuries and questionable tactics by Ten Hag.
At the end of the day, we’ll get 60m at least for the CL this season in revenues. Casemiro was a huge part of that, so absolutely worth it, we don’t make the CL spots if he’s not purchased.
If we want to assign blame, how about Antony? Onana? Rashford?
We played much higher. Was it Bayern or Barcelona? No. But it was much, much higher than we can play now with Maguire/Evans.We didn't play a 'high line' last season.
It wasn't Casemiro or nobody. A bit of scouting and we could have had say Onana and Palhinha instead last summer, who we've been linked with to basically replace him already.
We're about to crash out with Casemiro playing 2 games in the CL, heavily responsible for us losing one of them.
5-7m higher line is quite a bit in top level football fella. Seriously, 2-3 steps inside the half and 2-3 steps outside the half is a massive difference.Literally no one has said our current form is 100% his fault. Or that he's more at fault than ETH, Rashford, Bruno, Onana etc.
And high lines have zero to do with it. We didnt play a high line with Varane and Martinez either. Slightly higher maybe, but we're talking a few metres.
Casemiro has been stonkingly shite since the Liverpool game. His use of the ball is shocking. He doesnt track runners. Repeatedly he loses the ball and launches into desperate slide tackles that get nowhere near anything and take him out of the game.
The only part of the pitch he's done well in consistently is the opponents penalty area. That's it. He's a chunky Scott McTominay at best this season. Except we didnt pay £70m and £300k a week for McT.
The opportunity cost of spending £70m on a past-it Real bench warmer, only physically up for giving us 6 months of good football, is staggering. Just look at Palhinha who we could have got instead for let's say £40m (2x for the United tax). Now he's an £80m player and we'd be lucky to get someone to take Case off us for free.
Im not writing him off. I just very much doubt we will see peak 22/33 Casemiro again this year, or for the remainder of his contract.
And really, was he that good, or did he just look good last season because he have not had a serviceable defensive midfielder for over a decade.
5-7m higher line is quite a bit in top level football fella. Seriously, 2-3 steps inside the half and 2-3 steps outside the half is a massive difference.
Of course, Casemiro isn’t infallible. He absolutely has had a few poor games. But he’s come through with crucial goals, he tends to break up play / tackle further up the pitch, and he’s a much much better passer than he gets credit for. He’s excellent at recycling possession and he’s a master of the tactical foul and all of the dark arts. He’s all one-touch, McFred 2-3 touches. It’s a huge huge difference in us breaking the high press, and if you Can’t see that, don’t quit your day job, cause you ain’t making it as a football scout.
The opportunity cost of spending £70m on a past-it Real bench warmer, only physically up for giving us 6 months of good football, is staggering. Just look at Palhinha who we could have got instead for let's say £40m (2x for the United tax). Now he's an £80m player and we'd be lucky to get someone to take Case off us for free.
Saved us last season. He just cost too much but signing him was not a mistake
Nope we play a higher line this season:We played much higher. Was it Bayern or Barcelona? No. But it was much, much higher than we can play now with Maguire/Evans.
‘That is horseshit on Onana and Paulinho. 99% of scouts and DoFs would have taken Casemiro at 30 over those two. Seriously, I don’t know what to tell you if you can’t see how good he was last year and throughout his career.
It shows how far standards at this club have fallen that the League Cup and Champions League money is seen as a successful season.He is a success. He was part of the team that got us CL-money this season and a trophy. Problem is we wasted quite a lot of money to find a replacement.
It was a mistake, its the classic short term solution that has typified United over the last decade. Huge amount of money in fee plus wages, clearly on the way down, now we are stuck with him and need to spend just as much on a replacement. A 2 year signing on a free would have been great. Mount is a separate issue, but another terrible Murtough/ ETH signingNo.
The big mistake was not using the Mount money to sign cover/long term replacement. Same goes for Varane. Without both of them we wouldn't have finished 3rd and had the platform to get to the next step. Unfortunately it appears that we have fecked all the progress up.
No.
The big mistake was not using the Mount money to sign cover/long term replacement. Same goes for Varane. Without both of them we wouldn't have finished 3rd and had the platform to get to the next step. Unfortunately it appears that we have fecked all the progress up.
It shows how far standards at this club have fallen that the League Cup and Champions League money is seen as a successful season.
One good season and then 6-7 bad games the next season doesn’t make him a bad signing. The jury is still out.
A lot of people seem to have memoryholed this for some reason. I keep seeing the narrative (not just on here) that he was amazeballs last season and has only fallen off now, yet he was really poor in the latter part of last season too. As was Eriksen post-injury, and I distinctly remember the moaning about both of them and talk of how their legs had gone. There was also the excuse that the suspensions had derailed his season and that he would be fine after the summer break and a full pre-season, but obviously that's not been the case and he's still, for whatever reason, looked sluggish and unfit this season.he didn't have one good season though, he started slowly last season, did well in the middle and then was poor, very poor, towards the end
He was one of our best players last season, you can have a bad spell of games and still have a good overall season. Just like a goal scorer can go through a barren spell and not score for a lot of games but still win the golden boot.A lot of people seem to have memoryholed this for some reason. I keep seeing the narrative (not just on here) that he was amazeballs last season and has only fallen off now, yet he was really poor in the latter part of last season too. As was Eriksen post-injury, and I distinctly remember the moaning about both of them and talk of how their legs had gone. There was also the excuse that the suspensions had derailed his season and that he would be fine after the summer break and a full pre-season, but obviously that's not been the case and he's still, for whatever reason, looked sluggish and unfit this season.
100% agree.If we can get any money from Saudi for varane and Casemiro in January/Summer we’ll have done well to mitigate the damage of forking money to real for their cast offs
