Gary Neville points out ‘crazy’ moment that sealed Casemiro’s fate vs Liverpool

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One step forward, two steps back has been the theme at Manchester United under Erik ten Hag and that happened again with the loss vs Liverpool.

Manchester United have now lost back-to-back games in the Premier League after winning against Fulham and the spotlight is back again on Erik ten Hag.

Against Liverpool, it can be argued that the overall performance wasn’t as bad, but a scoreline as convincing a 0-3 rarely lies completely.

Individual mistakes ended United’s chances in the game and the leader in that department was Casemiro, who had a direct hand in Liverpool’s first two goals.

He was subbed off at half-time but Gary Neville said that the two mistakes were bad, but it was another thing entirely that sealed his fate.

Gary Neville’s take on Casemiro sub

Every fan in the ground could see that Casemiro needed to be taken off, no matter who it was, just the Brazilian couldn’t come out for the second half.

That is exactly what happened but Neville explained that it “sounds crazy” but those two mistakes weren’t the factors that led to his substitution.

There was a much deeper factor in play that made it certain that Casemiro’s adventure would only last 45 minutes.

He said: “I know it sounds crazy, but I don’t think he will have brought him off just for the two mistakes. I think it will have been the two or three things after that, particularly the crowd’s reaction to Casemiro when there was the incident down beneath us. Managers don’t just bring off players for mistakes.

“I just feel that maybe there were a couple of passes that he made after that that demonstrated that he looked like he lost his confidence and belief, and the fans had in him as well. It won’t be a pleasant place in the dressing room for him. I feel for him.”

The Casemiro question

We analysed earlier that Casemiro might be a big part of the problem, but the core issue is with Erik ten Hag’s system.

Toby Collyer couldn’t do much better and was absent for the third goal which pointed to the fact that Casemiro’s positioning is by design, not a personal choice.

Having said that, the Brazilian clearly lacks the legs to play in this system, if Ten Hag persists with this template (He shouldn’t).

With Manuel Ugarte coming in, it should hopefully help Casemiro too as he would be able to come off the bench and take part in the chaos with fresh legs for 20-30 minutes.

However, that can’t be the role for a player who earns like a superstar, and Ineos can thank the Glazers and their scattergun recruitment for that.

They’ve already realised the player has no takers, which forced them to sell Scott McTominay instead. At this point, they will just have to bite the bullet and carry him in a reduced role until his contract expires.