I am talking about Casemiro, who attempted 18 more passes than Bruno and saw far more action than him. Playmaker doesn't neccesarily have to be someone who is playing as attacking midfielder.
18
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 30
- Goals
- 5
- Assists
- 4
- Yellow cards
- 9
- Red cards
- 1
He's a slow starter. I will give him a few games to gather sharpness before making any assessment. We do need another midfield signing though.
Obviously not suppose to be the main playmaker and hes actually pretty good at play making
We need more than one and we also can do without a slow starter. Thats what pre season if for
So you’ve taken one game in isolation and stated that United have turned Casemiro into the playmaker?
Amazing he is being given a pass by some because he is a slow starter... He's had the same pre season as everybody else.
Wouldn’t slow starter therefore mean he needs a bit longer than the others that aren’t slow starters? I.e he needs a few competitive games on top of preseason?
For the wages these players are on, that's still an excuse for him.
If not this summer already, than next one at the latest, the "slow start" will be actually a decline, which is expected.
We have three midfielders, he is not supposed to be that with other two who are more attacking, and he makes pretty amateur mistakes quite often which means we shouldn't be relying that much on his playmaking, but rather on his other qualities.
He was quite often main playmaker in our games over last season, some people actually underrate him because he can be erratic in his passing even though that's not supposed to be his main asset.
I actually thought he was ok in the first half, one of the few who was trying to break lines with some sharp/incisive passing.
Don't know what the feck that second half was, he was all over the shop and looked absolutely fecked after an hour.
But like others have said, he is a slow-starter so I'm not overly concerned.
Don't know what the feck that second half was, he was all over the shop and looked absolutely fecked after an hour.
But like others have said, he is a slow-starter so I'm not overly concerned.
Why are people surprised? He was by himself against 3 players in midfield. It was some ridiculous disappearing from Bruno and Mount
Where does this slow starter stuff come from? What game should we expect him to be up to speed?
I thought he was 30 not 31 and would be 32 in few months. 
It's mind boggling tactics, we are playing 5 up top but lack the courage to push up a defender to help out Casemiro shut the midfield down. That's why City were successful with their line, well besides keeping the ball 100 times better and having actual wide forwards good at what they are supposed to do, Stones and Rodri ensured you never got a pop at their defense so their midfield box could contain and create. Ours is just a ragtag of wannabe Zidanes.
Terrible. But then the whole team were atrocious.
Looking forward, putting Eriksen back next to him isn't a solution, but I don't know what is at this point.
I wish we had an Eriksen with legs - Mount isn't that.
Looking forward, putting Eriksen back next to him isn't a solution, but I don't know what is at this point.
I wish we had an Eriksen with legs - Mount isn't that.
Yeah, he was good in the first half. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a professional footballer look as heavy legged as he did in the final quarter, in a game that hasn’t gone to extra time. What the feck is going on with our strength and conditioning? We were out sprinted and out muscled in every single physical challenge all night and lost the cardio battle as well. Is it our age profile? It’s a huge worry anyway.
He needs more help in midfield, the balance is all wrong. You can’t have Bruno and Mount pushed up that high leaving Casemiro to do all the defensive work himself, outnumbered in the middle of the park especially at 31. We need to be a lot more compact, the amount of gaps last night were unacceptable, they were literally running straight through the middle of the park unopposed and allowed to take a shot on goal.
I don't really think the balance is wrong, City have shown for years that you can play with a single pivot and 5 attacking players, I think the major difference is City do genuinely have a team full of players that are comfortable on the ball whereas we only think we do. I don't think the problem yesterday was Casemiro, it was actually ball retention. The amount of times we wasted the ball (Antony and Garnacho being the main culprits) and that leading to dangerous transitions was eye-opening.
The formation does not help him one bit, there is no question about that.
However, his tendency to get caught in possession in the middle of the field is just laughable. Every time despite all warnings from crowd and teammates, this guy just does not see it coming. So annoying.
However, his tendency to get caught in possession in the middle of the field is just laughable. Every time despite all warnings from crowd and teammates, this guy just does not see it coming. So annoying.
Yes it can work but I am not convinced we have the players for it. Gundogan and Kovacic are different types to Mount, and KDB is at a different level in terms of passing to any of our midfielders.
City have also perfected that thing where Rodri plays just in front of the CBs making it three at the back and allowing the full backs to step into midfield. I am not convinced we should try to emulate that just because it works for them. The whole team have to be good at retaining and recycling the ball and I don't think we can do it.
He looked geriatric last nightI thought he was 30 not 31 and would be 32 in few months.
We need to be more compact off the ball in midfield.
His passing was pants in the 2nd and gave away far too much possession
Same Case that we've known for a year now. Some very good, some poor and basically the only one playing centre mid.
His performances at the tail end of last season and the start of this have been well below his best. I hope that Father Time is not catching up with him.
Becoming a liability. He was very good before his red cards last season and since then has been average. Was very poor last game along with a host of others. Fergie's teams would have loved the atmosphere, the crowd and yesterday him and his team mates went in to a shell. For the money they earn and all the nonsense they talk in interviews and social media is frustrating when nothing translates on to the pitch.
He looked well off the pace yesterday, sluggish, slow and shot to pieces.
That said he looked similar in his first couple of games last season.
That said he looked similar in his first couple of games last season.
I would be happy if he just stopped lunging into tackles high up the pitch taking himself out of the play. For all the whining about how harshly refs treated him last season he didn't half make some dumb decisions.
Felt sorry for him, played in midfield on his own, and if that’s what we’re expecting of him he would need to be a pure sitter instead of pushing forward.
I said it a few times last season but can’t understand why he dives in and goes to ground so often, baffles me.
I said it a few times last season but can’t understand why he dives in and goes to ground so often, baffles me.
Him and Bruno have similar chance creation numbers and similar pass accuracy.
People need to stop painting De Bruyne as a Xavi level passer who barely loses the ball.
There is no way you can convince me that Fernandes is as good a passer as De Bruyne, nor that he doesn't lose possession more often. No matter which stats you throw in.
Can we turn him into a CB? Like Fernandinho?
I didn't say that to be fair.
I'm just saying that De Bruyne can be fairly careless with his passing too. He's not someone who's carving apart teams while barely misplacing a pass. And De Bruyne's played in far better club teams the past few seasons than Bruno has.
He's notorious for needing several games at the start of the season to gain shape. It was the same at Real.
For example in 20/21 at the start of the season:
It was the same last year with us where he needed couple of months even to shake the rust off and to adjust to the new league and life.
Case was never one of the fastest midfielders around even at his physical peak, he relied on his positioning and reading of the game and of course stamina levels. As the season advances he gets into rhythm.
Not sure it’s been mentioned on here but did anyone see the blip of his reaction after Varane scored? Looked fecked off and just slowly walked back without celebrating, sure it means nothing but he looked like he had the proper bag on.
Idk im still worried about him. Personally felt like people over valued him last year performance wise. To me seemed like he started poorly, had a good stretch run, then went back to poor to end. Felt like there was more poor overall throughout the year than good.
I wouldn't worry about him for now, he's always has been a slow starter (at least to my knowledge) and the current tactical set up being simply too much, he can't be everywhere on the pitch all the time, even Prime kante probably wouldn't manage it.
I'd start to worry if his performances don't kick up a notch by the time we're deep into the season however.
I'd start to worry if his performances don't kick up a notch by the time we're deep into the season however.
That's just how some players are and if I remember correctly in many seasons under Fergie we didn't get properly fired up till deep in the season, I suppose it actually makes sense somewhat , you'd rather be going full throttle when games come thick and fast not to blow your load early on and get knackered when it matters.
Madrid in recent years is a pretty good example of it I'd say.
Defensive midfielder is the third position in central midfield we have problen with. He does his job better than the other two easily, probably even on his bad day.