Interesting counterpoint I read this morning is that while he isn’t a progressive passer, the player this side has been missing for several season (a player De Jong actually is), he is a very safe with possession. When your game plan is possession and playing through traps, sometimes what you need is a release value not a killer pass. Someone you can give the ball to who you know is going to deal with the pressure, retain possession and give it someone under less pressure so they can play. Utd have supposedly given the ball away in their own half while under pressure an ungodly number of times in the last 2 games (see Brentford’s second goal with De Gea-Erikson screw up). The theory here is that Casemiro doesnt turn that ball over and they dont concede. So while he himself will not be providing those progressive passes, his net effect if a better passing game by strengthening their weakest link in the chain and allowing their lesser players to receive the ball under less pressure. To play the sort of expansive proactive football they want they’d still need a De Jong to partner him, but this argument views him as a step in the right direction.
It’s an interesting take and one I can buy in general, but in the specific I think there is enough lack of quality around him that they’re not going to be able to always find him when under pressure.
This is actually a really good analysis. The guy who does this has a very American Sports centric view of football where numbers are presented without context, but for once he’s actually derived a pretty incisive conclusion from it
He observes that Utd are still most dangerous when allowed to break quickly, but then makes the following conclusion…
Same. That move would’ve been fun for all non man united supporters.
Casemiro likes to do the dirty work, and is a huge upgrade on McFred. They now have someone with physicality and intelligence covering, erm, Maguire and mini-Mart, and allowing them to play Erikson and Bruno cohesively.
Let’s hope he turns into more of a Christian Poulsen type coming into the Prem.
Steve Potts wasn’t that tall either and he had a great career at West Ham from what I can remember. Steve Nicol also did well at CB for us without getting exposed in the air. It’s not just size that is a factor but jump ability, physicality and reading of the game alongside that of your team mates and opponents and each sides set up and game plan.
Ayala was unusually good in the air for his size. You wouldn’t have wanted him on Crouch, but he rarely got exposed. But that required tremendous athletic ability and nous. He also had the benefit of playing alongside CBs were also good in the air in most of his best sides to take some of the pressure off him. We mentioned that when Lopez signed, that it seemed to handcuff them into using Maguire given that neither Varane nor Lindeloff are particularly strong there (despite their height).
Also worth looking at the archetype forwards of the era. Fifteen years ago, the ‘#9’ had gone out of fashion, and forwards tended to be faster and smaller. A lot more of the big forwards around now.
