Manchester United can sign their own version of Rodri in £35m pass master

Add as preferred source on Google

As Casemiro once again skewed a relatively straightforward pass straight to the nearest blue shirt, you would have been forgiven for wondering if the Manchester United midfielder was suffering from a sudden case of colour blindness.

Inside the first 20 minutes alone, Casemiro gave the ball away six times during Saturday’s uninspiring 2-0 victory over Everton at Old Trafford. Now, passing has never been the Brazilian’s best attribute. He has always been a destroyer rather than a distributor.

But even by Casemiro’s ‘hot potato’ standards, this was a shocking display of inaccuracy, a pass completion rate of just 75 per cent nothing short of abysmal for a footballer operating in his position against very limited opposition (WhoScored).

Manchester United need a Casemiro replacement

Compare that to the performance of Exequiel Palacios just over 24 hours later.

Palacios, linked with Manchester United by BILD and one of a number of potential Casemiro successors under consideration, barely put a foot wrong during a masterful display as Bayer Leverkusen extended their lead over Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga table to 10 points.

Palacios managed 157 touches to Casemiro’s 83. 148 passes to Casemiro’s 70, at a near-fautless completion rate of 96 per cent. Leverkusen’s deep-lying midfield metronome capped a performance reminiscent of head coach Xabi Alonso in his own playing days with a sublime clipped pass to set up Florian Wirtz’s late clincher at home to Wolfsburg.

Whoever finds himself occupying the United hotseat during Ineos’ first season at the helm – be it Erik ten Hag or another – no Red Devils boss will succeed in creating a team capable of controlling possession and dominating even middling, Everton-level opposition with a player as reckless and as wayward as Casemiro in the number six spot.

Exequiel Palacios could transform United

As Everton racked up nearly 50 per cent of the possession and became the latest side to muster over 20 attempts on goal against Ten Hag’s side, United looked like a team crying out for what many on the continent call a ‘steering wheel’ midfielder.

Someone capable of taking control and dictating proceedings. A United version of Man City maestro Rodri, if you will. 

Palacios, reportedly valued at a bargain fee of around £35 million, could be exactly that. Not only a long-term Casemiro replacement, but a signing capable of transforming Manchester United from a team who play in moments into a side capable of trading in that end-to-end basketball-ness for 90 minutes of calm and control.