Ten Hag: Casemiro keeps surprising us
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has admitted that midfielder Casemiro has by far exceeded his expectations since joining the club.
The Brazilian netted a superb overhead winner in our 1-0 victory against Bournemouth, his sixth goal since joining United in the summer.
with in the ninth minute, Casemiro got on the end of a Cristian Eriksen ball in and hooked that ball over his head with his back to Cherries’ keeper Neto.
“He keeps surprising us,” said Ten Hag in his post-match press conference.
“He’s such a brilliant football player, we know him as very good organisation, positioning, anticipating, intercepting a lot of balls, winning duels, a fighter, keeping the team together, but also in possession his passing, his distribution, but also finishing. Just a great football player.
Erik's press conference
Erik ten Hag is quizzed by journalists and dissects United's away victory at Bournemouth...
The boss added: “We emphasise a lot and where we train on a lot, it’s about the movements when we are in the final third and movements of course has to come from the front line, second line just behind but also from the third line with fullbacks and with Casemiro coming from there.
“The movement is great, the touch from Christian Eriksen I think is great and the finish is brilliant.”
Asked if Casemiro has exceeded expectations, Ten Hag said: “Absolutely, by far.
“One of the things that came out of our analysis, we missed a player in the midfield. A strategist and we searched for the strategist – it was not easy because they are not many in that profile who fits to the standard of Manchester United and so we are happy we found him.
“His contribution is massive and I think even we miss him over eight or nine games by suspension. He was in the start of the season, he was not even there, so many games he was not even there, but I think when we played him in midfield it’s good in balance. We had a lot of wins with this midfield.”
The boss admitted that he was unaware of what was happening at Liverpool with regards the race for the top four, maintaining that the situation remains in United’s hand.
“I am telling you already for weeks it’s not about our opponents,” he said. “We are in the lead, it’s only up to us. We have everything in our hands, we don’t have to look behind.
“We have to make our performance, when we do it – nothing to do with any other team. We have to do with the opponent on the day.”