Casemiro was only granted 45 minutes worth of action in Manchester United’s win over Luton Town on Sunday due to his reckless challenges.
Erik ten Hag was forced to withdraw the Brazilian after he committed numerous fouls before eventually being shown a yellow card by David Coote in the 34th minute for upending Amari’i Bell.
Just five minutes later, a sloppy touch from the midfielder was quickly pounced on by Ross Barkley and led to Casemiro attempting to make up for his mistakes by lunging into the former Chelsea man, sending Luton’s players, staff and fans into uproar over what certainly looked like another bookable offence.
The United faithful will struggle to justify the 31-year-old’s behaviour at Kenilworth Road, however, it did come a week after he was carded for a foul on Matty Cash in which he didn’t even make contact with the right-back, who put on his best theatrics when diving.
Post-match, Ten Hag told the press: “Even when he [Casemiro] is not touching opponents he gets booked. Often the first moment of the game. I think it’s crazy and it was so unfair that first booking. That second could have been so that’s why I took him off. He touches an opponent and he gets booked.”
No surprise over Casemiro’s bookings, says Souness
Graeme Souness disagrees with the sentiment though, as he declared on talkSPORT (as cited by Manchester Evening News): “This is not new, it’s how he played at Real Madrid. He was famous for professional fouls, stopping breakaways, committing a foul, maybe taking a card for the cause because of a threatening situation. That was his career at Real Madrid. He’s a steady player.
“He doesn’t put it about. You can get booked for lots of things but he doesn’t put it about. He gives fouls away. He sees danger, sometimes a bit clumsy, slowing down. The biggest problem he had yesterday, which is part of the professional game, it’s not a new thing, the biggest danger of him getting a second yellow card, a red card was the way the Luton players go after the referee.”
