May 12th 2024.
Casemiro faced criticism after Leandro Trossard scored the first goal for Arsenal against Manchester United. Wayne Rooney, the former United player, accused Casemiro of being "lazy" as he was partly responsible for Trossard's goal. The game started off well for United, but they fell behind in the 20th minute when Ben White took advantage of a poor kick from Andre Onana and passed the ball to Kai Havertz on the right side of the field.
Trossard saw an opportunity and quickly ran past Aaron Wan-Bissaka before scoring from close range, giving the visitors a crucial lead. Despite United's efforts, they were unable to equalize and Arsenal walked away with all three points from Old Trafford. This victory also put them one point ahead of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table, with only one week left in the season.
During the game, Gary Neville, who was commentating for Sky Sports, criticized Casemiro for making a "basic error" by keeping Havertz onside during the build-up to the goal. Rooney, United's all-time top scorer, agreed with Neville's assessment and went on to analyze the moment after the final whistle. He called Casemiro "naive" and "lazy," and pointed out that the Brazilian is not a natural center-back.
"He's clearly a midfielder and not a natural center-back," Rooney said in the Sky Sports studio. "As we said at halftime, when Manchester United wants to play this way, you have to be ready to push up with the rest of the team, whether you're a midfielder or a center-back. Otherwise, you'll keep everyone onside and get punished. It was a bit naive, there was no angle for Onana to pass the ball to him. But he still had to push up, and he was lazy. The rest of his teammates pushed up, but he got caught."
Rooney also pointed out that Casemiro was not aware of the players around him while defending, which allowed Trossard to score easily. The former United star believes that the club's injury woes at the back are the reason why Casemiro had to play at center-back, and he thinks that the club's recruitment should be questioned.
"I don't think it has worked, but who else do they have there?" Rooney questioned. "The worrying thing is the number of players they have injured. They have injured center-backs, midfielders, and strikers, and that's a big concern. As Roy [Keane] has said, you have to look at the whole football club, including recruitment."
Rooney also talked about players' willingness to play through injuries and how the manager needs to be ruthless and take away the opportunity from them if they are not fit to play. He believes that this may not be the case at United, and the players may not have the desire to play on the field. "I played through injuries, and I'm sure these guys [Keane and Paul Merson] did too. You need to want to play, and the manager needs to be ruthless and take that opportunity away from you. Unless you have a serious injury, you should want to be on that football pitch. For me, it doesn't seem like that's the case."
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