Casemiro's underrated yet important trait on display in Man United's win vs Leicester City

Casemiro had his first set of meaningful minutes in a Manchester United shirt last night, and left having made a very good impression on fans.

Despite making some very key defensive interventions against Southampton, United’s new midfield superstar was only given 10 minutes. Against Leicester on Thursday night, he had over 30.

In these minutes, he had more of a chance to show fans his quality and did not disappoint. His passing in particular, was both excellent in isolation and quite impactful for the team.

Here, UtdDistrict go through some of his best passes and analyse why they were so good:

All images used with credit to BT Sport

In the above example, Casemiro receives laterally from Varane. They are pressed by Maddison and Barnes, but Casemiro completely splits their press with an excellent chip around the corner. 

Eriksen receives with time and space, so is able to turn and Rashford begins to make a vertical dart in behind. 

His final ball doesn’t find Rashford but within a minute of being on the pitch Casemiro’s pass leads to a good opportunity for United.

Leicester immediately tried to attack but McTominay intercepts a pass into Maddison. He plays back to Casemiro, who is rapidly pressed by the English midfielder.

But Casemiro remains cool and fires an excellent first time pass into Eriksen, who once again has time and space to receive the ball in a good position.

He has no suitable vertical options here, but had Rashford been ~5 yards further forward in the direction he was facing Eriksen would have been able to play it into him in an extremely dangerous zone.

United build again. Casemiro receives from Dalot in a pocket just inside his half, and turns, although his touch is quite heavy - something to watch out for as it can be a weakness at times.

Here though, he does excellently to evade Boubacary Soumaré’s challenge and switches the ball to Sancho, who is overlapped by Malacia but Sancho uncharacteristically overhits the pass slightly.

Switches to wingers are a key facet of Ten Hag’s play, and seeing Casemiro pull off switches such as this one that put United in good positions out wide only further reassures fans of the impact he will have.

Here, Casemiro creates one of the best opportunities of the entire game with some absolutely incredibly play.

James Justin receives the ball in space and shapes up to deliver a cross, and Casemiro - as always with him - is the first player to react to the danger. 

As he presses Justin, the full back tries to instead combine with a teammate, but Casemiro reads this, steals the ball off him and has space to drive into.

The Brazilian scans and sees Rashford and Fernandes making runs into space. On his weaker left foot, he plays a very good through ball which, whilst it just misses Rashford, finds Fernandes.

United’s number eight has the ball in a very dangerous position on the right with Rashford dashing into the box. However, he probably delays his cross slightly too long and cannot beat Evans with it.

United had multiple good opportunities last night where they got into good positions but could not execute the final pass, and this was the most prominent example of that. Time will see it improve under Ten Hag.

Here, Leicester press United after Lisandro Martínez clears an attempted ball in behind that Casemiro sweeps up.

As United build, Malacia plays laterally to Casemiro. Spotting the space in behind Eriksen, the Brazilian plays an excellent first time pass and completely breaks through the Foxes’ press.

Eriksen then has space to drive forwards with the ball, and he plays a searching long ball for Bruno Fernandes, who is running in behind on the right.

His pass doesn’t quite find Fernandes, but the cleared header falls to Dalot. The full back looks to combine with his compatriot and almost gets in behind in a dangerous section of the box but Leicester defend Fernandes’ through ball.

Another good attack that was stopped by good defending from Leicester, coming from a Casemiro pass. His passing was really impactful in this game.

Here, Casemiro receives from McTominay and plays the pass first time around the corner to Malacia. The pass breaks the press and Malacia has time to turn and drive. 

Ronaldo sprints in behind, but Malacia hesitates on playing the pass and then the forward no longer becomes an option. Another good opportunity which just lacked the right decision making, but was created through quick thinking from the Brazilian.

Here, Casemiro receives a pass inside from Ronaldo as United transition. He very cleverly starts to drive inside to move Ndidi inside, which opens up the space for Fernandes to run into.

He then, using his weak foot, plays the midfielder in down the right and his cross nearly forces a Leicester own goal.

In just over 30 minutes on the pitch, these are all the opportunities that came from Casemiro’s passing. His ability on the ball was a concern of many coming into the season, but he looks strong in this regard so far for United.

Later in the game, a lot of his passes and touches were to slow play down and kill off the game, which was acknowledged by the commentators. This alongside his elite defensive ability helped United see out the win.

This level of game management is something that United have lacked for a long time, whilst also being something that helped Casemiro to win five Champions League titles in Madrid.

Now that he has been eased in, it is expected that the number 18 will start in midfield against bitter rivals Arsenal on Sunday, and the team will certainly be better off for it.

Topics: Manchester United, Leicester City, Premier League, Casemiro

Yusuf Haq

I’m a 19-year-old Economics student going into my third year of University. A keen Manchester United fan with a strong interest in football analysis.

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