The Red Devils blew their chance to land the England international by splurging on the Brazilian, who now looks a spent force
Manchester United versus Arsenal has been defined by great midfield battles over the years. Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira had such an intense rivalry that a documentary was made about their battles in what was the biggest fixture in English football at the time.
Over a six-year period, whoever came out on top in the fixture would usually go on to win the Premier League title. Its grandeur was lost when Arsenal began to fade, their decline summed up by their 8-2 hammering at Old Trafford in 2011. And the once unmissable fixture almost became irrelevant at the start of this decade.
Sunday's match will have all eyes on it once more due to its impact on the title race, albeit only for Arsenal. While the Gunners need to win to keep pushing Manchester City all the way, it has become almost a non-event for United. Most Red Devils' fans are counting the days for this dreadful season to come to an end after they reached a new low with their crushing defeat by Crystal Palace on Monday.
And the contrasting states of the two teams can be summed up by their midfields. The Gunners can boast Declan Rice, one of the top players in the league and who has spearheaded their impressive title bid. United meanwhile, have Casemiro, who has become a laughing stock and was the main scapegoat of the battering at Selhurst Park.
But what is most galling for United is the nagging feeling that with a bit more foresight and long-term planning, they could have signed Rice for roughly the same amount of money they splurged on the languid Brazilian…
Getty ImagesRice bringing clarity to Arsenal
Rice and Casemiro have sure had contrasting weeks. The Englishman was named runner-up in the Football Writers' player of the year award at the start of the month and vindicated those who had voted for him by starring in Arsenal's 3-0 win over Bournemouth.
The midfielder set up Leandro Trossard's goal before rubber-stamping the victory with a goal of his own in added time. He has got seven goals and nine assists in the Premier League this season, by far the best numbers of his career. And this is for a player who until recently was regarded primarily as a holding midfielder, mostly focused on protecting the back four.
Rice has also fared well in other key statistics. He ranks third among Premier League midfielders for successful passes, with 1946. He is also third for successful passes in the opposition's half, ranking fourth for overall touches and fifth in interceptions. Rice has also retained possession with 91.3 per cent of his touches. Manchester City's Rodri is the only player who ranks above him in that metric.
"If I had to describe him with a picture it would be a lighthouse," Mikel Arteta said of Rice in February. "When I was envisioning the squad, how can I explain him? How can I see him in the team? His pressing, he’s overlooking everything, he’s bringing light and clarity and guidance for everybody."
AdvertisementGettyCasemiro 'needs to call it a day'
Then there's Casemiro. The Brazilian was already enduring a nightmare campaign, looking a shadow of the dominant player who shook up United last season. But he plummeted new depths against Crystal Palace. He was at fault for three of the four goals, above all when he got dispossessed near his own corner flag as Michael Olise rubbed salt into United's wounds by scoring the fourth.
The Brazilian was dribbled past eight times against the Eagles, more than any other player in a Premier League game this season. And he was so bad that Jamie Carragher, who has been beating a drum about the Brazilian's decline all season and claimed 'his legs have gone' back in October, urged him to quit top-level football.
"I think Casemiro should know himself tonight as an experienced player that he should only have three games left at a top level and then say I'm going to go to the MLS or Saudi," the former Liverpool great said on .
"His agent, or the team around him, need to tell him. We're watching one of the greats of the modern time… but I always remember something when I retired, a saying I'll always remember: 'Leave the football before the football leaves you'. The football's left him at this top level. He needs to call it a day at this level of football and move."
Getty£142m for a player heading for retirement
Casemiro's drop-off from his first season in English football is stark. He made an average of 1.44 interceptions per game in 2022-23, which has fallen to 0.84 this season. The possessions he won in midfield have also fallen sharply, from 4.61 to 2.52. He lost 1.86 challenges per game last season, which has risen to 2.73, while his dispossessions per game have risen from 0.59 to 0.79.
Casemiro's numbers make for particularly grim reading when compared to Rice's. Then again, so do that of his midfield partner Kobbie Mainoo. The United pair trailed Rice in nine key statistics compiled by, including interceptions, carry distance, passes completed, goals, assists and chances created. The athletic comparisons were most striking. Rice made more than double the amount of sprints than Mainoo and Casemiro. And he doubled Casemiro's off-the-ball runs.
While Rice is one of the best midfielders in the world right now, Casemiro looks a spent force. The Brazilian's decline has came sooner and been more drastic than envisaged. But then again, this is a player who United signed when he was over 30 and had more than 500 top-level games under his belt. His coming decline should have been a factor when the club considered him in 2022. But they ignored the warning signs and agreed to pay Real Madrid a colossal £70m ($87m) to get him.
Madrid must have been delighted as his sale covered the majority of the cost of Aurelien Tchouameni, who they had already signed as a long-term replacement, aged 22 at the time. The fee for Casemiro was almost double the amount Madrid had paid for Eduardo Camavinga, who has been one of the stars of their run to the Champions League final and their Liga title win.
But the fee is only half of the story of the costly mistake United made in buying Casemiro. When they signed him, they also committed to making him one of the club's top earners, paying him a reported £18m ($22m) annually for four years. All in, they have committed to paying a total of £142m ($177m) for a player who looks ready for retirement. And guess who they could have signed for the same amount of money? Declan Rice.
GettyA costly panic buy
United had been looking at Rice more than two years before he left West Ham for Arsenal. They made serious enquiries in 2021, even considering including Jesse Lingard as part of a deal. "There was genuine interest although it didn't get far," a club source told GOAL. And part of that was down to Rice's transfer fee.
West Ham manager David Moyes warned it would take 'Bank of England money' to prise Rice from his club in the summer of 2020 and he was valued at over £100m then. Arsenal eventually signed him for £105m ($131m), beating Manchester City to his signature.
City turned away from the move when his asking price climbed beyond the £90m ($112m) mark, although there are no regrets at Arsenal for the price they paid to get such a top player. Indeed, Arsenal fans have recently been chanting: 'Declan Rice, we got him half-price.'
United wanted to sign Rice last summer, too, but by then had run out of money after spending £211m ($263m) the previous summer on transfer fees alone. And they clearly paid a heavy price for the short-term thinking that led to them spending so heavy on Casemiro.
The Brazilian was unquestionably a panic buy who United turned to after a disastrous start to Ten Hag's debut season following defeats by Brighton and Brentford. The club had spent much of the summer on a doomed pursuit to sign Frenkie de Jong.
But after the Dutchman made it clear he had no plans to swap Barcelona for Manchester, they went for Casemiro, a player of a completely different age profile (six years older than De Jong) and very different playing style, whose game was centred on destroying opposition attacks rather than building from the back. Rice is one year younger than De Jong and was a far more suitable alternative than Casemiro.