Rafael van der Vaart has launched a scathing attack on Erik ten Hag - with the former Tottenham man adamant that the Manchester United chief has given himself a major headache with the "very stupid" decision to integrate Casemiro gradually into his squad.
Ten Hag quickly identified midfield as an area that needed strengthening after arriving at Old Trafford and Casemiro was signed from Real Madrid after the club finally abandoned their efforts to prise Frenkie de Jong away from Barcelona.
Casemiro is one of the most respected defensive midfielders in Europe and is a multi-time Champions League winner from his time at the Bernabeu. However, the Brazilian enforcer has been eased into life in the Premier League, with Ten Hag keeping faith with Scott McTominay for Sunday's crunch Manchester derby.
Although McTominay had been expected to make way following Casemiro's arrival, the Scottish midfielder has kept his place and impressed alongside Christian Eriksen, who has been deployed in a deeper role in recent weeks.
But the United academy graduate and Eriksen were completely overrun in midfield at the Etihad - leaving Van De Vaart to question why Ten Hag decided against bringing Casemiro into the team before the match against Manchester City, who surged to a resounding 6-3 victory.
“Ten Hag should have started playing Casemiro straight away," Van Der Vaart said while analysing the game for Dutch television. "McTominay starts performing and Man United start winning and then of course he can’t put McTominay out of the team anymore. I find this very stupid from him because you are creating your own problem.”
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Casemiro was eventually introduced by Ten Hag in the second-half, but the damage was already done for United, who headed in at the break trailing 4-0.
Gary Neville defended Ten Hag's decision and insisted that the United chief hadn't made a mistake by starting McTominay ahead of Casemiro - but Neville's former teammate, Rio Ferdinand, was in disbelief over the fact that the former Los Blancos star was ignored for such a big match.
Ten Hag himself was also asked about Casemiro's absence following Sunday's defeat, but he pointed to the impressive form of McTominay and highlighted that it was down to Casemiro to force himself into the team 'naturally'.
The United chief explained: "On the day we signed him, we started to win and it's about the team. The team is doing really well, it's not against Casemiro, it's for, in this case, Scott McTominay.
"He performed great in the team and then we get into a run, but I'm sure it will be important for us in the long and short-term. He will find himself in the team but it has to come in a natural way."
