Manchester United’s signing of Casemiro feels like seven years in the making. Ever since Michael Carrick hung up his boots, the likes of Fred have failed to justify their transfer fees, just as questions continue to loom large over Scott McTominay.
Here we take a look at why Casemiro’s statistics prove his worth already.
Casemiro has already played a few times for Real Madrid this season as it looked like he would be staying in the Spanish capital.
One of these games was the UEFA Super Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt, where after playing 90 minutes, the Brazilian had an incredible record of nine tackles in the game and just one foul. In just one game, this is already more than Fred has had in three United games this season.
Stop scrolling ✋Watch this 👇@Casemiro's first United interview has dropped and it's not to be missed! 🔴🇧🇷#MUFC— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 25, 2022
Stop scrolling ✋Watch this 👇@Casemiro's first United interview has dropped and it's not to be missed! 🔴🇧🇷#MUFC
In that Super Cup match, Casemiro also assisted a goal for his side, while having two shots in the game and registering another key pass. Fred, however, has had 0.3 shots per game from three outings for United, while not registering a single key pass this season.
The standout figures from last campaign for Casemiro in contrast to McTominay and Fred is the amount of clearances he had.
The Brazilian registered a fantastic tally of 1.8 clearances per game in La Liga last season, and it proved to be vital once again with Real conceding just 31 goals in the league compared to the 57 United let in from 38 Premier League games.
In contrast, Fred recorded just 0.7 clearances per game, while McTominay went one better with 0.8.
This ultimately shows a higher IQ for the game. For example, the way Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion so far have bolted through United’s midfield is something that has rarely happened to Casemiro in all his years at Real.
Not only is the 30-year-old superior in preventing attacks, his ability when retaining the ball to distribute is significantly more productive than the efforts of Fred and McTominay.
Last campaign, Casemiro had an average of 61.3 passes per game at an 86% success rate, while incredibly registering 5.5 long balls a game too - you'd expect this to work wonders with United's width and speed up top when switching the play.
Fred, however, had just 2.2 long balls per game and had both less passes per game (48) and a lower success rate (84.1%).
Things were even worse for McTominay, who saw his season finish with just 1.9 long balls per game and 41.1 passes per game at a 85.6% success rate.