Souness can’t resist dig at ‘clumsy’ Man Utd star who is ageing ‘quicker than a flair player’
Graeme Souness was not surprised to see Man Utd midfielder Casemiro hooked off at half-time at Lut0n by Erik ten Hag after picking up an early booking.
The Red Devils beat the Hatters 2-1 in the Premier League on Sunday, thanks to a Rasmus Hojlund brace, as they closed the gap on fifth-placed Tottenham to three points.
Ten Hag was forced into an early substitution at half-time when he decided that it was too dangerous to keep the already-booked Casemiro on the field.
The Brazil international had avoided an early booking but was given a yellow on 34 minutes and Ten Hag decided to remove the Man Utd midfielder at the interval for Scott McTominay.
And Liverpool legend Souness – who called the Brazilian a “steady Eddie” and claimed he’d “never been a great player” when he joined Man Utd – insists he wasn’t surprised by Ten Hag’s decision with Casemiro’s apparent penchant for bookings.
“This is not new, this is how he played at Real Madrid,” Souness said on talkSPORT.
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“He was famous for professional fouls, stopping breakaways, committing fouls and 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, he gives fouls away, he sees danger and sometimes he’s a bit clumsy, he’s 31 now, but you wouldn’t say he puts it about.
“The biggest problem he had yesterday, which is part of the professional game and not a new thing, the biggest danger of him getting a second yellow was from the Luton players going at the referee, but that’s not a new thing either.”
And former West Ham and Newcastle boss Alan Pardew reckons Ten Hag made the correct decision to take the 31-year-old off with defensive midfield one of the worst positions to start showing your age.
Pardew added: “When you’re a central midfield player and the one breaking up attacks and making tackles you actually age quicker than a flair player.
“If the timing is just off and you can’t make it, you’re making more fouls, Casemiro is in that world in my opinion. I think it was a good decision personally [to take him off], I would have done the same thing.
“He could have got sent off, he was that close, the bottom line is he had to take him off at half time because they were in danger of going down to ten men, you’re talking about a very experienced player who shouldn’t be in that position.”
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