Manchester United’s defeat to Manchester City at the weekend was clearly tough to take, and while still digesting the result, Red Devils’ midfielder Casemiro spoke to the Brazilian media about it.
The 32-year-old, who was interviewed by ESPN Brasil, explained what went wrong in the performance from Erik ten Hag’s side, and was asked about the many injuries which have been harming the squad, which have not been giving the manager a chance to repeat line-ups.
Casemiro made it clear how damaged they are by that issue, even sounding like he didn’t expect something like that to happen at Manchester United.
“Well, it’s difficult, isn’t it? Especially with a club like Manchester United, you always have that excuse, as we say in Brazil, and it’s true, right? And every year we have more than eight or ten injuries, and it’s difficult. It’s always difficult, especially important players staying out,” Casemiro told ESPN Brasil.
“Today Licha, Rasmus, another important player. In the end, when you play for Manchester, you have to have a group, you have to have an important group. But of course, when you lose important players like that, you end up feeling it. We’re trying, we’re working, we’re trying to do our best to be as high up the table as possible.”
Casemiro was also asked about the new owners and their objective to overcome Manchester City in the coming years. The midfielder agreed that this should be the main goal, despite how hard it will be.
“Well, firstly, it’s the big objective. We know, and we have to be humble enough, to realise that at the moment, not because of their history, and Manchester United’s history speaks for itself, but at the moment, yes, they are the team to beat. Everyone thinks about beating City. And whenever people come from outside, people who want to add, people who want to take the club to the next level, it’s always important.
“So it’s very clear that the company, that the new owners want to do that and, well, we know that here we have the mirror of City who have been doing great work. And hopefully they’ll come in and grow. Because it’s important for the club and it’s important for us to have people who want to grow here.”
Manchester United now stand 6th on the Premier League table, and prior to the international break, there’s a league match against Everton and the FA Cup quarter-final versus Liverpool.
After that, Casemiro will join Brazil’s squad to face England and Spain in a couple of friendlies.
