Casemiro had a bad season. What’s behind it? The reason may be the absence of Fred

Casemiro had one of the worst seasons of his career, as did the whole of Manchester United. The Brazilian was often criticized for his slow passing and lack of defensive work, as he was late in almost all duels. Compared to last season, there was a drop in performance of almost 100%, all because of the departure of Fred.

Casemiro with Fred

When Casemiro arrived from Real Madrid for 80 million euros, he was very often in a central pairing with Fred. Fred is a very mobile player who often doesn’t stop for the whole game. In fact, this is part of the reason he came to United, where he was supposed to allow Paul Pogba more freedom on the pitch.

What didn’t work with Pogba going forward worked with Casemiro going backwards. Casemiro had far more defensive support thanks to his teammate’s movement and wasn’t on his own. The numbers show that last season Casemiro had 1.4 interceptions of the ball per game, while this season he only had 0.7.

When needed, Fred filled in for a hard to move partner and his drop off didn’t show as much. By keeping Fred very close to his teammate, Casemiro was able to walk into a lot more risk, which just wasn’t the case this season. He was more or less able to feel more relaxed at the plate thanks to Fred as well.

Adding another stat from last season, Casemiro was dribbled over an average of 1.5 times per game, and this season? 2.3 times, a staggering difference. Even when these 2 aforementioned players played side by side in the Brazilian national team, Brazil never lost.

Brazilians without Fred

The opening games of the season already hinted at how hard it would be for Casemiro without his old partner. The experienced midfielder was suddenly nowhere, he was everywhere late and his ball work looked like it had slowed down at least 2 times more over the summer. The Brazilian in particular has made mistake after mistake this year.

The biggest problem came when he played with Amrabat, who has the same or at least similar movement. United’s midfield looked totally motionless and both players were almost plonk. The game looked similar with Eriksen, Mainoo also has other qualities other than running around the pitch just to keep Casemiro from being below average.

Jamie Carragher was very critical of the player: “Casemiro is only fit for MLS or Saudi Arabia anymore, they should be judicial (with the agent)”. The statement garnered a wave of criticism, but most fans agreed. So United must decide whether to find a player similar to Fred or part ways with Casemiro.

Source: Premier League, Goal.com