Calamity, thy name is Casemiro
Yes, the ref had a shocker, but United's maestro messed up too – and Erik ten Hag left him too isolated
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 0, Southampton 0
You wait 13 years for a straight red card with Casemiro’s name on it, then two come along at once. This was his second in four league games, and United Writing has to take its share of the blame as we were there for both. On a day when the curse of the commentator was unable to strike, was this the curse of the United blogger? Or was the ref, Anthony Taylor, simply having a shocker? He seemed to be trying so hard not to favour the home team that he ended up blatantly biased against them. As Peter Walton said in The Times, the red card was defensible, but Taylor wrongly denied United a penalty for Armel Bella-Kotchap’s handball. He also pushed the United wall back more than ten yards for a free kick, just as he had at Villa Park with fatal consequences. And he allowed only one minute of added time in the first half when there had been at least six minutes of stoppages. That said, Casemiro was at fault too – it was a case of once bitten, twice rash. He is normally so adept at staying in just the right amount of trouble that you wonder what has changed. Maybe it’s the prolonged absence of Christian Eriksen, a calming influence as well as an expert co-pilot.
Erik ten Hag had already made life difficult for Casemiro. He selected him as the sole defensive midfielder, removing Fred’s ball-winning brio and replacing it with Jadon Sancho’s link play to make a 4-1-2-3, as foreshadowed by Rob Smyth. The attacking intent was admirable, but Sancho is not used to being a No 8 and it showed as he played like the poor man’s Mason Mount. His average position was hidden under Wout Weghorst’s, two very different players getting in each other’s way. If Match Of The Day had been on, the pundits would have been drawing big circles in midfield to show us how isolated Casemiro was. Ten Hag then compounded the problem by asking Bruno Fernandes to do the same job for ten minutes. I found myself in the unfamiliar position of longing for McFred. Scott McTominay did come on in the 44th minute and played well, but the midfield remained outmanned until Fred finally joined him … in the 91st minute. This was a perplexing decision that may have cost United two points, although they might have drawn this game anyway because their regular matchwinners, Marcus Rashford and Fernandes, were both rather tepid by their red-hot recent standards. They badly need a rest and should surely be spared the trip to Real Betis on Thursday.
You could even argue that United had started with ten men. Antony, as usual in the league, had nothing to declare but his trickery. His last league goal came on 9 October; his first league assist, after 1071 minutes on the field, has yet to arrive. He can’t beat his full-back on the outside so he has to cut in, and when he does that, after taking about four touches, he either passes the buck or hits a tame shot towards the top corner. It’s all too slow and too predictable. His best moment in this match came when he gave Casemiro a hug to console him for the red card. How he stayed on for 74 minutes, when every player was having to pull more than their weight, was a mystery. And United paid £84 million for him! As PSV Eindhoven’s director of football said the other day, “everyone in football knows [that fee] was a madness.”
The defence did really well. Luke Shaw was sloppy with his passes early on but rose to the challenge when Casemiro went off, taking over as the main ball-winner. David de Gea made a couple of great reaction saves – both from Theo Walcott, as if the clock had gone back to 2013. Lisandro Martinez kept digging United out of trouble with a block or a tackle, then playing a sophisticated ball forward: on a day like this, he’s Norman Hunter and Michael Carrick rolled into one. Raphael Varane, as ever, cruised around like a luxury car. “He’s a Rolls-Royce,” said Adonis, my neighbour in the Ferguson stand, who wasn’t distributing a lot of praise. Adonis was right: when the ball is in United’s box, Varane and Martinez are a Rolls-Royce and a JCB digger. Even Aaron Wan-Bissaka was excellent, making a crucial clearance off the line, playing some quick passes and running Kyle Walker-Peters close as the best double-barrelled right-back on the pitch.
From the World Cup to the end of February, United were the top team in the league. They collected 23 points, the same as Man City, from one game fewer (10 rather than 11) and matched them for goal difference (+13). That seems a long time ago now. In the Premier League table for March, United are 17th, with an even worse goal difference than the nine clubs in danger of relegation. They have kept on winning in the cups while running into a reality check in the league, which leaves them in a dogfight for the top four with Spurs, Newcastle and Liverpool and possibly Brighton. United have still to play each of those teams bar Liverpool, and all three games are away from home. The dates for your diary are 2 April for Newcastle, 27 April for Spurs and (probably) 3 May for Brighton, so at least they’re not in March. The other crumb of comfort is that Nate Silver’s algorithm still has United finishing third, six points clear of Spurs and Newcastle. You just wonder if anybody has told it about squeaky-bum time.
Tim de Lisle writes about sport for The Guardian and music for The Mail on Sunday. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing. And if you received this piece by email, please feel free to forward it to any fellow sufferers supporters.