'Shambolic' Casemiro blasted as Ten Hag's Man Utd experiment backfires

Tom Weber

• 6 May 2024 21:20 BST
• 4 min read

Manchester United star Casemiro was subjected to scathing criticism from pundits for his role in Manchester United's embarrassing first-half performance against Crystal Palace.

Man Utd went into the fixture at Selhurst Park with a point to prove after only mustering a 1-1 draw with relegation-fodder Burnley the week prior. However, it was the same as story for Erik ten Hag and company as it has been for most of the season.

Oliver Glasner, who has been doing a stellar job since taking over at Crystal Palace, oversaw a dominant first-half performance from the Eagles that ended with the home side leading 2-0 at halftime.

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Due to Man Utd's shortage of fit and available centre-backs, Ten Hag was forced to start a defensive partnership of 36-year-old Jonny Evans and 32-year-old defensive midfielder Casemiro. The experiment backfired spectacularly.

Ironically, it was top Man Utd target Michael Olise who opened the scoring by easily deceiving Casemiro with a little body feint after the Brazilian had made the ill-advised decision to step out of the defensive line.

Casemiro blasted

The embarrassing and schoolboy nature of Casemiro's mistake was hit with scathing criticism from Sky Sports pundits Ashley Young and Jamie Carragher at halftime. "It's shambolic," former Man Utd star Young said. "Casemiro, I don't know what he's thinking, what he's doing."

"Maybe he thinks that Olise is going to go backwards. Olise sees he's going to come out and make a challenge and literally just walks past him. It's so easy, so easy."

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Carragher then chimed in: "He's playing out of position tonight. This has got nothing to do with playing out of position - that could be a holding midfield role. That is embarrassing. They need to bring him off!"

"He needs to come off. Nothing can be worse than Casemiro playing centre-back in this second half for Manchester United. Put [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka on in the middle and put someone at full-back."