Tim Howard has said that he cannot let one Manchester United player off the hook after his performance against Arsenal as Erik ten Hag’s side were beaten 1-0 at Old Trafford.
Manchester United gave a much better account of themselves on Sunday just days after being torn apart by Crystal Palace earlier in the week. Unfortunately for ten Hag, it was not enough to secure the three points.
The crucial moment in the game came when Leandro Trossard turned in Kai Havertz’s cross to give Arsenal the lead; a lead that they would hold onto to return to the top of the Premier League table.
Very quickly, it became apparent that the key error from United came from Casemiro who had played Havertz onside after very slowly emerging from his own penalty area.
Tim Howard criticises Casemiro after Manchester United defeat
The Brazilian had dropped to provide an option for Andre Onana, but found himself even deeper than the goalkeeper. And once the ball went elsewhere, Casemiro barely jogged forward to catch up with the play.
The 32-year-old has been extremely poor in recent weeks, which some will put down to the fact that he is not a centre-back.
But, speaking on The 2 Robbies podcast, Tim Howard suggested that he has little sympathy for Casemiro’s struggles at centre-back as he does not buy into the idea that he does not have the capabilities to play the role.
“It’s been a difficult couple of weeks for Casemiro. We can’t let him off the hook because what I would say to you, if there’s any two positions on the football pitch which have a natural progression, it’s defensive midfielder to centre-half,” he said.
“It happens all the time, I played with players who became slower foot, couldn’t do the running anymore, guess where they put them? Right in the heart of the defence because they could organise, they could head it, they could kick it.
“So I look at body language, that’s a really important thing to me, because I don’t care that you’ve lost a step and you don’t have the engine or the legs to get around, I could care less about that. But your body language, and how animated you are and how much you orchestrate and conduct and talk and yell and put people in position, that wasn’t happening either.
“So forget the running and all that, you’re going to get caught out of position every now and then, that’s normal. But I said to you on air, when he plays in the number six role, I see him checking his shoulder and pulling people along and getting in the right position, which means he has it in his locker, so that has nothing to do with energy and legs and running, that has everything to do with being switched on, wanting to play the position.”
Erik ten Hag has to take a lot of the blame
It is almost as if Casemiro cannot believe that he has left Real Madrid to be a part of this current Manchester United team, and has lost his hunger over the last couple of years.
Howard is surely right that there do appear to be signs that Casemiro’s attitude is not in the right place. But with that, you have to question why Erik ten Hag continues to persist with him there.
Of course, United are dealing with a number of injuries, but Aaron Wan-Bissaka could probably play there, while Scott McTominay has also made a handful of appearances in the role in the past, and has also featured there for his country.
Obviously, it would have been a huge ask to deploy someone like McTominay there, but some must be wondering whether he would possibly be worse than Casemiro.