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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Richard Fay

Manchester United are about show if they have learned valuable Casemiro lesson

It speaks volumes about the importance of Casemiro that the main talking point from Manchester United's win over Crystal Palace was his red card.

United continued their rejuvenation under Erik ten Hag with another home win at the weekend, the type of straightforward victory that they have become accustomed to recording in recent months.

Turning such matches into relatively comfortable wins has formed the backbone of United's strong run of late, and could well prove decisive in their quest for Champions League football next season.

Read more: What needs to happen for Casemiro suspension to be overturned

Just as important, though, has been the enormous positive impact of summer signing Casemiro, who has totally transformed the United midfield with his immense experience and even greater ability.

There is an argument to say the 30-year-old has been United's player of the season so far (sorry Marcus Rashford), such has been his level of consistency ever since he was integrated into the team.

That could become even clearer in the coming weeks, with the Brazilian set to miss the next three Premier League matches through suspension after his red card at the weekend.

Four of their six defeats across all competitions this campaign have come when Casemiro has not started, and it is little surprise that their last league loss came when he was suspended for the trip to Arsenal.

Ten Hag knew his side would find it tough to beat the league leaders without arguably their best player, and it showed as a midfield axis of Scott McTominay and Christian Eriksen struggled to shackle their opponent's attacking talent.

United should still have enough to overcome Leeds and Leicester without their best defensive midfielder, though they will need to have their wits about them against two teams with some impressive attacking players of their own.

In order to do so, Ten Hag will be hoping his side can dominate possession and minimise the need for a defensive specialist, though that will be particularly tricky with Eriksen also out injured.

It seems like Marcel Sabitzer will be crucial to such an approach to offset the creativity lost, but the big decision will come from who is selected to shoulder the defensive responsibility in midfield.

What was clear from the Arsenal defeat is that United paid the price for not adapting the set-up to cater for the loss of Casemiro, and across the next three matches solving that must be a priority.

With McTominay injured Fred looks like the obvious choice to deputise for Casemiro at the base of midfield, but Ten Hag could also consider whether he'd be better off repurposing either Victor Lindelof or Lisandro Martinez there and asking for a more defensive approach instead.

United have the attacking excellence to win games in a split second, but in order to make sure those contributions are capable of winning a match, they first must keep things tight at the other end.

They might not be able to find anyone who can do what Casemiro does, but they might not need to.

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