Casemiro’s terrible performance against Crystal Palace on Monday evening was arguably his worst yet in a Manchester United shirt as the Red Devils fell 4-0 to the Eagles on a night to forget for Erik ten Hag – and an unwanted stat has prevailed that highlights just how poor he was under the Selhurst Park lights.
The Brazilian was one of United’s best players last season, scoring in the Carabao Cup final to win United the trophy and coming up with countless big moments to fire them to the Champions League in Erik ten Hag’s first season as boss.
But this season has seen a huge decline in his performances and as such, United fans are questioning what has happened to the midfielder.
But with a turnaround needed from the former Real Madrid man, one statistic from Monday’s defeat shows just how poor Casemiro has been playing in recent weeks.
According to WhoScored.com, Casemiro was dribbled past eight times in a Manchester United shirt on Monday evening – the most times any player in the Premier League had been dribbled past in a game all season.
Even his next-best tally of five times being dribbled past in the 2-1 win over Aston Villa back in February was enough to pose question marks over the Brazilian’s head, as fans queried whether his loss of pace and tackling nous was declining at a rapid rate.
Casemiro took plenty of criticism from fans online on Monday evening, especially for his role in the opener as he aimed to slide in and win the ball from Michael Olise just inside the United half; failing spectacularly, before Olise drove into the space he had left him and finished with ease to set up an absolute drubbing in south London.
Fom there, it got even more embarrassing as he tried to shepherd the ball out of play, being eased off the ball and that allowed the space for Olise to fire home from the edge of the area.
The damage wasn’t done there, though. The tally of eight dribbles past the Brazilian at Selhurst Park has now put him as the most dribbled-past player overall in the league, too – with 2.4 dribbles against him per 90 minutes.
This was originally held by Brentford man Mathias Jensen with 2.3, though Casemiro’s average shooting up statistically makes him the easiest player to beat in the entire division.
