The Brazilian's tendency to pick up early bookings has left United vulnerable on too many occasions – it's time they came up with an exit plan
No one can argue with Casemiro's knack for winning trophies but when it comes to his treatment from referees, opinion is greatly divided. To his detractors, the Brazilian does not get punished enough for his fouls. During his long and glittering career with Real Madrid, fans of Barcelona and Atletico Madrid claimed that he would frequently get away with murder on the pitch. They were not the only ones.
A quick Google search with the words 'Casemiro should have been sent off Real Madrid' brings up three examples from one season alone. In Casemiro's final campaign at the Santiago Bernabeu, there were fierce debates over whether he should have been sent off against Valencia, Cadiz and Levante.
Cadiz winger Ivan Alejo was the victim of one studs-up challenge from behind from the Brazilian in 2021 and his reaction to Casemiro not being sent off summed up wider public opinion in Spain. "I understand that this is Real Madrid, it's Casemiro, and that we know he gets away with many cards a lot," he said.
"I thought they were going to send him off and when I saw it was yellow I thought they would have to review it on VAR. I understand that it's not the same to show a red card to a Madrid player as it is to a Cadiz player. It's difficult for referees on a stage like this, the pressure is tough and perhaps if it were the other way around the card would have been a different colour."
Getty ImagesDivided opinion at Luton
Luton Town's players felt the same last Sunday when they surrounded the referee after Casemiro, already on a yellow card for a foul on Amari'i Bell, took out Ross Barkley before half-time. Casemiro was promptly substituted by United manager Erik ten Hag out of fear that he would soon earn another booking and get sent off.
"The fact he came off will tell you what I think about that," said Luton boss Rob Edwards after United escaped with a 2-1 win. "I haven't seen the first one back but I feel that the second one was, [so] he should have been off."
But to Ten Hag, Casemiro was the real victim. The Dutchman claimed his player gets punished far too harshly by officials and should never have been booked in the first place.
"Even when he is not touching opponents he gets booked. Often the first moment of the game," Ten Hag told a press conference. "I think it’s crazy and it was so unfair that first booking. That second could have been so that’s why I took him off. He touches an opponent and he gets booked."
AdvertisementGettyNo stranger to yellow cards
The furore about whether referees are too lenient or too harsh on Casemiro has followed him from Madrid to Manchester but one thing is certain: the Brazilian has never been a stranger to picking up yellow cards.
Despite his reputation for getting away with it in Spain, he still picked up 91 yellow cards in 336 games for Madrid, while being sent off twice for double bookings. That's a booking in 27 per cent of matches.
In 68 games for United he has been shown 19 yellow cards, – including twice in one match this season against Galatasaray – a booking in 28 per cent of matches. The main difference is that he has been shown two straight red cards for United, while he never received the same punishment for Madrid, to the horror of his detractors.
Casemiro has earned four yellow cards in the Premier League this season in 12 matches but is not United's most common offender when it comes to cards per match. That is Luke Shaw, who has been booked in half of his 12 appearances.
Casemiro's disciplinary record should still alarm United fans though. He has been booked in eight of his last nine matches in all competitions, including the double booking that saw him sent off against Galatasaray.
GettyHolding United back
And his propensity to get booked early is holding the team back. Six of his eight yellow cards have been earned in the first half. In his first Premier League match in over three months against Wolves earlier this month, he was shown a yellow card after just three minutes.
In the shock 1-0 defeat by Crystal Palace in late September, he was booked in the 10th minute. Although he completed the full 90 against the Eagles, the fact he knew he could be sent off for another infraction in the remaining 80 minutes likely contributed to his limp display.
The same was true against Luton. Although his foul on Barkley was one of the main talking points at Kenilworth Road, his reluctance to foul the midfielder earlier in the game out of fear of getting booked allowed Luton to advance towards United's box and left Carlton Morris one-on-one with Harry Maguire, who was late to the challenge and was shown a yellow card.
Although Luton felt United should have been reduced to 10 men, Casemiro's caution meant they were effectively playing with 10 and a half men, as they have been for much of the season. Even though Ten Hag gave a staunch defence of Casemiro, he also admitted to having a word with the midfielder about his tendency to get into trouble.
Getty Images'Has trouble with everything else'
Casemiro's lack of discipline is not necessarily the problem, it is the fact that he no longer has the pace he used to and frequently arrives too late for tackles, causing him to give away fouls rather than claim the ball. His United counterpart Kobbie Mainoo reads the game far better, despite the dearth in experience compared with the Brazilian, and his quick feet and brain at Kenilworth Road protected United from getting overwhelmed even more by Luton.
Although one of the top holding midfielders in the world over the past decade, Casemiro has never had the vision or tactical intelligence of some of his counterparts. Xavi Hernandez brutally summed up his game in an interview with a few years ago, when Casemiro was at the peak of his powers with Madrid.
"Madrid break apart, seven players attack and Casemiro stays back on his own to cover the centre," Xavi said. "[Sergio] Busquets cannot do that as even I am faster than he is. Casemiro is super fast, but he has trouble with everything else as he has not worked on it. He has other characteristics, is more defensive, makes more tackles, covers more ground, but he does not dominate space-time."
The problem for United is that Casemiro is no longer 'super-fast' and that is why he has, at times, struggled to keep up with the frenetic pace of the Premier League, which is more intense than La Liga. Now he no longer has the physical qualities that made him stand out, the deficiencies in his game that Xavi highlighted are starting to show.
