Casemiro looks ready for retirement! Man Utd must cut losses on decaying Brazilian in summer transfer window if they are to fix biggest weakness

Casemiro admitted after United's 2-2 draw with Liverpool that he has been losing sleep thinking about how bad the club's season has gone, but it is his performances that have been giving many fans nightmares.

The Brazilian was already having a woeful campaign, but things have got even worse since he returned from injury against Brentford. Against Chelsea, he was hopeless in trying to keep up with the pace of the game, which was summed up by the sight of him jogging back as Nicolas Jackson raced towards the United area in the first half, knowing he could never catch the forward.

He was taken off by Ten Hag with 15 minutes to go at Stamford Bridge, and it could be argued that United missed his experience when they chucked away the lead by conceding in the 100th and 101st minutes.

But against Liverpool, he was even more exposed. He was dragged all over the pitch by Alexis Mac Allister and loss the ball on 16 occasions. He also posted a pass completion rate of 67 percent, the lowest of any player on either team to start the match.

Casemiro's struggles this season can be summed up by three factors: the pace of the Premier League, his age and the wild style United have been playing for most of the campaign.

The midfielder had spent the majority of his career playing in La Liga, which, despite being one of the top divisions in the world, is played at a far slower pace than the Premier League. Adapting to the relentless intensity of the English top-flight is something that every new player must do, but Casemiro has the disadvantage of having recently turned 32 and has 617 matches under his belt for club and country.

Furthermore, he is playing in a United side that is increasingly chaotic and has adopted a style of play that demands an awful lot of running from its players. While some players, such as Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho and Diogo Dalot, have managed to thrive this season within this model of play, Casemiro clearly cannot cope with it. The odds appear to be stacked against him.

Jamie Carragher has been one of Casemiro's most outspoken critics from the start, and when Liverpool destroyed United 7-0 last season and many pundits had their knives out for Bruno Fernandes, Carragher instead pointed to the Brazilian, who he said was "not at the races from the start".

Although he admitted that Casemiro had otherwise been one of the players of the season before that nightmarish day for United on Merseyside, Carragher has continued his crusade against the Brazilian throughout this season.

“I think Casemiro’s legs have gone,” he told the Covering Liverpool podcast last October. “I noticed it last season at Anfield [when Liverpool hammered United 7-0] and I didn’t like what I saw. It took me back to watching Fabinho last year for Liverpool. I want to be the first to say it."

Carragher has also led the criticism of Ten Hag's tactics, which he described as "impossible" last month in a deep-dive into United's 'high press, low block' style. More and more pundits have come around to Carragher's way of thinking as United have conceded 87 shots in their last three matches, and whatever you think about Ten Hag's style, it is clear that Casemiro is not cut out for it.

It remains to be seen whether Ten Hag will still be in charge of United next season, as minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has already made a series of huge changes to the club's hierarchy, most recently parting with sporting director John Murtough.

But if United do truly believe in Ten Hag and trust that he will eventually get consistent results out of the team, Casemiro will have to leave. And a swift departure for the Brazilian is likely to please Ratcliffe. It has been reported that the INEOS chief questioned the signing of Casemiro months before he finally completed his purchase of a 27 percent stake in the club.

It is easy to see why. Ratcliffe has previously blasted United for being 'the dumb money', and the signing of Casemiro underlines the absence of joined-up thinking among the people in charge of the club's transfers.

The Brazilian was essentially a panic buy, signed in the days after United's shambolic 4-0 defeat by Brentford in August 2022. He cost the club an initial £60m ($75m) plus a further £10m ($12.5m) in add-ons, a steep fee for a player on the wrong side of 30. And that's before considering his salary, believed to be the highest at the club and reported to be £18m ($22m) per year on a contract until 2026.

Gary Neville summed up the short-term nature of the Casemiro transfer on his Stick to Football podcast in January: "A bad recruitment window costs you for two or three years, you can’t get them out. Casemiro is perfect example of a short-term signing that is going to cost in the long term. That signing never should have gone through. A good sporting director, a good owner, and a good head of recruitment would have stopped it. It should have been a veto."

It has also been reported by The Athletic that Casemiro's wages are so high they prevented United from signing Harry Kane last summer due to the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules.

United are already teetering on the edge of their limits on PSR and are set to lose a large amount of money if they fail to qualify for the Champions League. Getting Casemiro off the wage bill, therefore, becomes an even bigger priority than before. And given how he seems ill-equipped to play at this level, it seems a no-brainer.

For all the criticism Casemiro has been getting lately, it should not be forgotten that he is a model professional. He famously cancelled a holiday for his family to Disney World in 2019 after watching Real Madrid get hammered 7-3 in order to return to training long before he was required to.

He is reported to be among the first players to arrive at training at Carrington each day, and Ten Hag last year praised him for being "such a leader", pointing to "his organisation, his mentality, the culture".

But the reality is that leadership qualities count for little when you can barely get around the pitch. Even with all the goodwill he earned in his first season, United cannot afford, quite literally, to keep him around much longer.

Incoming sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox have a huge rebuilding job on their hands, and one of their main tasks will be finding a new club for Casemiro. It will not be easy to find a team willing to pay anything close to the fee United parted with two years ago or one who can match his wage demands, so the club will have to swallow their pride and cut their losses.

But the short-term pain will be worth it. Because with every match, Casemiro looks closer and closer to retirement than staging a resurgence.