Casemiro is the story of the season at Manchester United so far, and it might be about to take an even better turn if his own comments about his time with Brazil are any indication.
From being on the fringes of the Man Utd squad and deemed expendable to forcing his way back into the team and becoming Ruben Amorim’s undroppable, Casemiro has had a whirlwind one year.
This season, he has become the fulcrum of the team, holding it all together, as evidenced by the team falling apart when he’s off the pitch.
As important as his defensive nous is his goalscoring, particularly off set-pieces, and his latest comments about what he’s working on with the Brazil national team will delight Amorim.
Casemiro comments after Brazil’s win against Senegal
The trend of Man Utd players doing well for their national team continued recently in Brazil, where both Casemiro and Matheus Cunha were standout performers.
Casemiro scored a goal while Cunha was threatening without troubling the scoresheet.
What Casemiro said after the win will be of particular interest to Amorim, because he has been demanding exactly that from his squad as well.
The midfielder said that just like Amorim, Carlo Ancelotti is also putting a lot of focus on counter-attacks and set-pieces to give them a leg-up on the opponent.
After his latest performances, do you want Casemiro to sign a one-year contract extension?
He said (via Lance.br): “It was a very good first half, almost perfect. A perfect first half. In the second half, we controlled the game more; we wanted to counter-attack.
“We’ve been working a lot on set pieces. Ancelotti is even a bit strict about it; he gives us a lot of statistics. Set pieces can decide games. It’s something we’ve been training, and it’s great that it worked today.”
Amorim’s work at Man Utd is being added upon
Generally, club managers don’t like the international break because the players go into a different tactical setup and instructions.
It makes their job of re-tuning their instincts that much more difficult when the players return, which won’t be the case with Casemiro.
The midfielder is already working in a transition-based, set-piece-heavy tactical setup, so, if anything, Amorim will get a more match-fit Casemiro who’s been doing more of what he’s already doing at Old Trafford.
That should ease the acclimatisation period for Casemiro, whose minutes are already managed and monitored closely by Amorim to keep him at his best.
He has Carlo Ancelotti to thank for it!
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