Wayne Rooney accused Casemiro of ‘laziness’ and felt the makeshift defender was largely to blame for Leandro Trossard’s goal in Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United.
United started brightly but fell behind in the 20th minute as Ben White capitalised on a poor kick from Andre Onana and found Kai Havertz down the right flank.
Trossard sensed the opportunity and sprinted in behind Aaron Wan-Bissaka before beating Onana from close range to make the crucial breakthrough for the visitors.
The visitors held firm to take maximum points away from Old Trafford, giving them a one-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table going into the final week of the season.
On Sky Sports’ commentary of the game, Gary Neville blasted Casemiro and claimed the Brazilian had made a ‘basic error’ by playing Havertz onside in the build-up.
Rooney – United’s all-time record goalscorer – agreed with his former team-mate as he analysed the moment shortly after the final whistle, claiming the five-time Champions League winner had been ‘naive’ and ‘lazy’.
‘He’s obviously shown that he’s a midfield player and he’s not a natural centre-back,’ the former United and England forward said in the Sky Sports studio.
‘As we said at half-time, once Manchester United want to play this way, whether you’re a midfield player or a centre-back, you have to be ready to push out with the rest of the team because, if not, you play everyone onside and get punished.
‘It was maybe a bit naive, there’s not really angle anyway for Onana to get the ball to him. But then he has to push out and it’s lazy. It’s lazy, he’s lazy.
‘The rest of his team-mates have pushed out and they get caught by it.
‘And even defending the space, he’s not aware of any players around him and then Trossard comes in and gets an easy goal.’
Erik ten Hag has been forced to field Casemiro at centre-back due to United’s injury woes at the back and Rooney believes fingers should be pointed at the club’s recruitment.
‘I don’t think it has worked but who else have they got in there?’ he added.
‘The worrying thing is the amount of players they’ve got injured. They’ve got centre-backs injured, midfielders injured, strikers injured and that’s a big concern.
‘As Roy [Keane] has said with recruitment, you’d have to look at the whole football club.’
Rooney continued: ‘Players get injuries but you need to want to play as well. I played with injuries, I’m sure these lads [Keane and Paul Merson] played with injuries.
‘You need to want to play and the manager needs to be ruthless and take that opportunity away from you because unless you’ve got a bad injury you’re wanting to play on that football pitch.
‘For me, it doesn’t seem like that is the case.’
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