Roy Keane makes prediction over Casemiro’s Man Utd future and identifies Erik ten Hag mistake | Football

Casemiro endured a tough end to last season amid United’s defensive injury woes, with the Brazilian forced to fill in as a makeshift centre-back in the absence of Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof.

The 32-year-old will have been desperate to prove his doubters wrong with a strong start to the 2024/25 campaign but he produced a horror-show display as United were swept aside by Liverpool on Sunday.

A clinical brace from Luis Diaz gave Liverpool a healthy two-goal advantage inside 42 minutes and Casemiro was largely to blame for both strikes, twice punished for giving away possession at Old Trafford.

Ten Hag decided to replace Casemiro with academy graduate Toby Collyer at the halfway stage but the substitution made little difference, with Mohamed Salah putting the visitors out of sight with an unanswered third in the 56th minute.

However, legendary former United captain Keane is reluctant to write Casemiro off just yet and feels Ten Hag should try playing the Brazil international in a more advanced position.

‘I think he will [play again]. Where else is he going to go, unless something is done in the next week? He’ll definitely be here until January,’ Keane said on The Overlap.

‘The one thing I would say… he had a difficult first half, obviously, but he played in the Community Shield, done okay, played against Fulham, done okay.

‘They should have beaten Brighton, Manchester City had half a team, I get it. But I wouldn’t be writing players off at that age.

‘We’re saying 31, 32… what happens, I’ve been there, when you get to that age and he had an unbelievably poor game which he did in the first half… everyone’s quick, as if none of us had a bad game when we were twenty two.

‘Everyone’s says, “Your legs are gone”, and you’re going, “Actually, my legs were gone a few years ago!”.’

‘But when you make mistakes as a player, I bet he’s looking around going, “Lads…”.

‘I would have left him on. You bring on a young player and sometimes managers do that. They bring on a young player, a bit of PR, and this kid will probably be a decent player but when he comes on, he’s come on to a difficult situation at Old Trafford.

‘It’s not because of what he’s done previously, I still think there’s enough there that he could maybe give something to Man United.

‘But the problem is that they’re still so far behind City, Arsenal and, on the evidence of the weekend, of course there is Liverpool.’

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