Former Manchester United defender, Rio Ferdinand, has branded Erik ten Hag’s decision to continue to play Casemiro as centre-back as “unfair”.
The Brazilian had one of the worst games of his career last Monday against Crystal Palace and was once again at the centre of action for the wrong reasons yesterday.
An injury-ravaged United defence has meant that Casemiro has needed to fill in as a centre back and this experiment has failed miserably.
Arsenal’s winning goal came directly from the Brazilian lazily jogging back into his position, and when the ball broke kindly for Arsenal to launch a counter-attack, he was caught far behind his teammates, therefore playing Kai Havertz onside and in oceans of space to pick out Leandro Trossard to score.
Pundits such as Paul Scholes and Roy Keane have already called out Casemiro’s form and the latter has already stated that the veteran is not good enough to play centre-back at Premier League level.
Speaking on his Vibe with FIVE YouTube channel, Ferdinand has echoed his former teammates’ concerns about Casemiro playing at centre-back but blames the manager for putting him in an unfair situation.
“When is he going to take Casemiro out of the backline? Why can’t Amrabat play there or Scott McTominay? Was Scott [McTominay] injured?”
“I just don’t think it’s fair. If you see a few mistakes from somebody who is playing there, who has never played there before, and you see those mistakes early, you should go: ‘Do you know what? I’m not going to do this to you.”
Ten Hag has previously defended Casemiro and actually complimented the job the Brazilian did yesterday, claiming he is a winner and did a very good job on Sunday.
However, Ferdinand sees it differently and claimed, “I don’t care how experienced he is, I’m not going to do this to him. ‘Come on. We’ll move you out of there and get you back to the position you know.”
The Champions League winner then offered his own solution to the United defensive crisis as they wait for any of Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane, Harry Maguire or Victor Lindelof to return to full fitness.
When asked if Aaron Wan-Bissaka could do a job at centre back he replied, “Yeah, play him there. Then play one of the other guys right-back. Put Amrabat there. You’ve played him left-back, play Amrabat right-back.”
“That’s the most natural thing for me. Aaron Wan-Bissaka centre-back and Amrabat at right-back, because he was happy to play him left-back for a few games. I don’t know. We just look like we’re on repeat here. We look like we are an uncoached team.”
The theory is that Wan-Bissaka is a more natural defender and this would allow Casemiro to shift up and defend areas of the pitch he is more used to.
The problem with this is, Casemiro has also struggled when playing as a number six and he has been unable to keep up with the unforgiving pace of the Premier League.
Moreover, Wan-Bissaka is a great tackler but he regularly struggles to stay in the right position defensively and is famously average in the air. Not a good combination for a centre-back.
The solution of Amrabat playing right-back is also perplexing considering he showed nothing of merit as a left-back and his passing or crossing ability hardly stands out as a strength.
What is clear is that Casemiro cannot play at centre back and it is mind-boggling how Ten Hag thinks the opposite.
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