Erik ten Hag thrilled he signed ‘great football player’ for Manchester United

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Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United side defeated Bournemouth 1-0 on Saturday thanks to an acrobatic Casemiro effort.

It was a somewhat lacklustre display from the Red Devils. They posed little threat in attack and no player really stood out. However – the most important thing is the three points.

There was one man who pulled his weight at the Vitality. Casemiro. The Brazilian stepped up once again when it mattered most.

Ten hag caught up with the press afterwards and spoke of the importance he brings to the side.

‘Just a great football player’: Ten hag praises Casemiro

Speaking in a press conference after the win, the boss had this to say in the midfielder.

“He keeps surprising us,” said Ten Hag in his post-match press conference.

“He’s such a brilliant football player, we know him as very good organisation, positioning, anticipating, intercepting a lot of balls, winning duels, a fighter, keeping the team together, but also in possession his passing, his distribution, but also finishing—just a great football player.

He then went on to speak a little about the goal that secured the Red Devils all three points.

“We emphasise a lot and where we train on a lot, it’s about the movements when we are in the final third and movements of course has to come from the front line, second line just behind but also from the third line with fullbacks and with Casemiro coming from there.

“The movement is great, the touch from Christian Eriksen I think is great and the finish is brilliant.”

Finally, Erik was asked whether the 31-year-old had ‘exceeded expectations’, to which he responded: “Absolutely, by far.”

“One of the things that came out of our analysis, we missed a player in the midfield. A strategist and we searched for the strategist – it was not easy because they are not many in that profile who fits to the standard of Manchester United and so we are happy we found him.

“His contribution is massive and I think even we miss him over eight or nine games by suspension. He was in the start of the season, he was not even there, so many games he was not even there, but I think when we played him in midfield it’s good in balance. We had a lot of wins with this midfield.”

Casemiro has been arguably our best signing of the post-Fergie era. We can’t wait to see where he can take the side in the future.