Casemiro to blame for Man United's loss to Liverpool? 👀 'Why is everyone jumping on him?!' | ESPN FC

not the uh first time as Liverpool win 3 nothing taking all three points over their bit rals what does it mean at the top of the Premier League table well early days but still Manchester City and Liverpool nine points from their first three games more on this one we'll welcome back ex Liverpool man Luis Garcia Frank Leff the World Cup champion uh joining the show I don't mention it oh well we got to we got to let him we got to mention it cuz we know he never actually Frank I'll start with you we don't want to be too brutal on a legend here but GMO in that first 45 minutes I mean how bad was that leave him alone yes yes I know Bruno Fernandez tried to uh to to make him not guilty because it's a collective Sport and naming one players uh it's harsh in the in in the football world but the truth is yeah the two mistakes the two loss of the balls came from from him and uh and not re no reaction again and we saw that last week from the Manchester back line where they nowhere near it they don't know where to stand the first one as Stevie mentioned you know nobody in in the far post and the second one you know they lose the ball Mayu that doesn't follow uh the center back don't look at G and Salah deliver something absolutely fantastic with the outside of the food and yes kimor is guilty I think it was good the first 2025 minutes and he went down physically and it's when he lost the balls and that's that's where you have to have a second sword if you 10 high you know can he be the player who can play you know games after games and serve the club as at his best like he was doing for real it's impossible for me so it would be harsh to to only criticize him but it's a fact that the two first goal is because of him Stevie I've never seen you so ready to defend a Manchester United player my good are you okay Was Won everything apart from the World Cup this guy's won everything sure but we're talking about was he good no he wasn't did he give two passes away yes he did but why why is everybody jumping on Cassie what happened to this we win we win as a team and we lose as a team what happened to that everybody's jumping on him jump and here's and and by the way did you see the second goal after the ball was given away which camura gave away they had six Defenders six defend when Mo Salah had the ball at his feet and he was facing d up they had six Defenders including D and if you want to throw the goalie in as well so if your midfielder gives the ball away you've got a back a back line that has to defend sometimes and they didn't defend was he not the biggest problem today I I man United's biggest problem today was Manchester United I actually felt sorry for casmiro because you could tell the camera every time it went to closeup of him you could tell he was embarrassed because he set such high standards over his career and he's struggling he's struggling but this is a man united problem this is an Eric ten hack problem because this game after the initial 10 15 minutes was so embarrassingly easy for Liverpool it was frightening and yeah they had a couple of chances here and there but they were completely schooled all over the field particularly in the middle of the park grenberg mallister sabosa the movement of J the movement of the wide players how Liverpool pass it how they defended a little deeper with the two sitting midfielders grenberg and mallister a bit deeper but still getting forward with the same Pace when they win it like Jurgen Club side it was nice and balanced from Liverpool yes we can talk about superstars at the Twilight of the career having bad days in the office and he did but this is not a result of casemiro playing bad this is a result of the mediocrity a continuation and be in mind they've got three points out of nine this is a second defeat uh this is a continuation of the conversation we had at the end of last year about Eric tenh and if this continues after the international break this conversation will not go away it will not go away now he's got a g to come in who was there and and got on a flight for Uruguay he's got DEET who got some game time he's got some changes he can make make but if he doesn't get results and quickly the conversations that we rightly were having towards the end of the season about his job are going to be back in his face within weeks and that's not casemiro's fault that's Eric ten haag's fault that's his team's fault that's his team's performance that's on the manager and he he's thrown out there about basically saying everything was great the structure was great my tactics were great people people well the quote today is individual mistakes is what he pointed as the downfall today is that him throwing guys under the bus that's a lot of nonsense I'll give him something he he had no we just showed the two individual mistakes right right what about what about the 70 minutes of Liverpool taking them apart what about the fact they were all laying for 5 10 minutes in the middle of the second half pass pass pass pass pass switch you play shot embarrassing that was embarrassing you can't butter this up any other way we can all sit here and say oh if aarti played today oh Scott momy hadn't G to Napoli they would have had legs in Midfield this would have been a different game don't be sh it Liverpool schooled anley slot is just in he's got more to work with he's got better players but they schooled man united today they were lucky it was only three I mean we never showed the two messes from zob Van dijke was asked to five or six he said yes well it should have been both of them both of them I don't know why they didn't just put the ball in the back of the net sales went 20 yards Over the Bar SL is like was just try to be too clever in terms of football MH this game wasn't lost by Manchester United because they made a couple of mistakes they got completely outplayed from you know I've had the boys saying 15 minutes in I would say when Trent Alexander Arnold's goal was disallowed because up until then it was a fantastic start from United from that point on this this was men against boys no question an absolute schooling and yatti might be coming in he he might wonder what he's been doing or what he's doing because they they cannot change much other than yatti Erikson you think Ericson would have made a difference had he been on earlier they take Casmir on off and they bring a kid on you know some reason Kobe Manu does not get any criticism this kid cannot defend as a as a midfielder on the ball he's fantastic he's so silky he never seems to give it away he's he's got great vision but defensively oh he did he doesn't defensively he he has no Instinct how to defend you know I hear rashford's getting a bit of praed today because he ran up and down couple of times to defend you know gacho didn't do an awful lot of defender on the other side what how is ten ha going to make this team competitive because he doesn't have the players and he score Squad other than so far ugti hasn't kicked the ball but if if you're relying on him to completely change this round he's in for a shock uh let's bring in Luis Garcia Luis you would have heard the the question raised by Frank about casmo whether he can still kind of do it do you think he can still do it at this point in his career do the job that Manchester United needs him to do in the Premier League and if not do you think this Manchester United Team can figure things out in the coming months I thought you were going to ask me about how Liverpool play but I'm going to go for the red Devil's performance and casmiro honestly I think that camiro yes he can do it he can do it they regain they battle they they they play they assist they can score goals they do everything and of course when you got three players that they are working for 90 minutes that's something very important for for any team so I think that that's the the the the main thing today that we need to talk about of course man united they will they will get it they will find a way but today they just found themselves out played they couldn't even manage the the rhythm of uh of Liverpool and in the moment that they tried to arrive to that midfielder the the the three four midfielders because even Diaz and jot were work working very hard to try to regain the ball to press higher on the on the field they just couldn't get out of of their position so uh we are talking about a 3-0 but as Steve was mentioning he could have been two or three more goals I'm slightly the opposite here I don't want to be down on a player but at the end of the day our job is to to analyze and unfortunately and I thought he come back preseason Cas looked a little trimmer maybe he was but I think it's an unfortunate consequence of just getting older uh and the game gets quicker is that I just don't think he can do it I think he can maybe come in now again and the odd Cup game and maybe for suspensions but I just think he can't do it he's not I just don't think he's going get through and experience alone I don't mean you look at the what rate of of that Liverpool Midfield you look at the what rate of the Manchester City Midfield you look at the what rate of the Arsenal Midfield you know if we're just talking about England we're talking about these teams at United are aspiring to get back in amongst you can't carry anybody in there you can't have people that can't run about it's not only he can't run about he's making mistakes on the ball now so that's a double that's the double-edged sword for him and yes agatti will play uh I think we'll see uh casmiro being phased out but again it goes back to the the consequential decisions of given a guy not a three-year deal but a 5-year deal on huge money and so you're left with this sort of scenario where a player is struggling but has what I think three years left on on a contract on huge wages and so there's another problem for them but the initial problem is not Financial it's on the field and I think ultimately he's going to find himself playing less games and not more games because he's at that time of his career now he's just struggling particularly in his position his position for a decade plus has been covering every blade of grass covering fullbacks covering center backs you know covering the fullbacks and there's no way to hide in that takes its toll not only does it take its toll because you're probably working as hard as anybody in the team you're the enforcer which is what luuka Modric and Tony Chris said when he left Real Madrid thanks very much for being The Bodyguard he was everybody's bodyguard but it takes its toll and he's at United now where he's exposed he's exposed to poer players who are making more mistakes the game is more open and he's getting left with huge gaps he has to cover he can't do it and I think unfortunately for him that is and United that is just a huge problem but it's not not their only problem but from caso's perspective I honestly think we're going to see him in a United shot less and less we find ourselves in a pretty familiar situation when it comes to Manchester United what do you hear there you know he was quoted before the game as saying allegedly that in his time at United they had overshadowed Liverpool with their trophy count with their trophies not withstanding the fact that their General football get it if you're just if you're just about winning the odd cup you know Wigan won the FA Cup 2013 we relegated the same season you know these things can happen grece won the Euros it can happen Cup competitions it can happen the real judgment of a team most of the time is over a 38 game domestic League season they were 15 Li they were 15 points I believe worse than the season before 22 off Liverpool they were horrendous last year so the fact that he gets questioned in the manner in which he does and I think these journalists are asking him more pertinent questions as every week goes by is because he answered so ridiculous last year his defense of performances was staggeringly unbelievable you know talking about a game at brenford where Manchester City had also struggled when they've beaten him 3-1 and had absolutely pummeled them just making ridiculous statements rather than I think coming out and saying and being honest because you know there's a lot of people out there they're not the brightest but most people understand they watch it they understand and said I just coming out and saying look we made some mistakes today maybe I made some as well we got out played we I've got a lot to work on and we're going to go away after the international break roll our sleeves up and work in our weaknesses but he there is basically saying to the journalists you know absolutely nothing we know everything CU we can see it and you know nothing that's basically what he said unfortunately for T hag the question was actually spot on and so that's why he basically didn't that's why he answered the way he did talk you've been in you've been in those shoes what do you say there if not what he said what does the man say you can't you can't agree with him you're not going to agree with the guy you're going to go in the defensive because that's what you do and that's what he did there you you you heard his answers his answers were nothing about football all he said was we won two two cups and and I feel bad for you cuz he couldn't come back at him with football knowledge because the guy's question was actually spot on yeah it feels a bit like sorry it feels a bit like when I think it was Sam allise at the time criticized uh who's the Dutch manager it was managing it who was the Dutch manager at United in Holland recently sorry I had I had a little blank it's been a it's been a long day Kelling mbappe scored two goals uh you did get that right Lou Louis vanal scored uh Louis vanal was questioned about United played more long balls Sam allad and then Louis vanal took it upon himself and his staff to go to a press conference and his PR team were cringing as he rolled out these stats you know basically taking the bait to what another manager had said you think the do protest too much and it just feels that Eric tenh is in a similar scenario that he's got somewhat backed by his board in the summer which was a surprise and he now feels maybe he doesn't but I think he feels he's got a little a little bit more strength a little bit more uh rope uh and that he can still say these things but ultimately these results don't lie he needs to come up with another answer cuz winning the FA Cup is getting old you can't keep saying that every single time the question is about progress right and basically if there's if there's progress being made Frank when you watch this I mean we have to make the argument they're moving backwards if anything right yeah but that's uh what we felt before the season because we didn't see people arriving and uh and um giving this idea of progressing uh throughout the season um nothing could come out for from from what we saw during the preseason and what we saw especially from the last season but uh it is what it is and uh and I'm with the guy you know um if you want to enter or properly ENT to the journalist just say that you're going to work harder that you're going to work on the weakness SE that you felt and you saw what was missing today or lacking and uh you're going to work harder and defensively is where you have to be stronger in the middle of the park of course and you compare when you compare uh compare uh Liverpool and and uh and Manchester's uh U midfielders it's it's crazy it's crazy how the others work so hard and are so clever and how the other are really in the in in in the tunnel and they are it's a complete blackout and they don't see anything and defensively you cannot argue with any journalist that you don't do the job when you lose the ball because it's what we saw we saw it last week Cons considering like two goals and today considering like three goals in Counterattack losing the ball in the middle of the park and not reacting defensively and from there hard to see that they going to progress U even after the the break that we going to going to have next week it's going to be too short and it might be too late uh so good luck to to 10h and these beautiful answers I think they this might sound strange but I think they might actually be a little better this year after all the things I've said and the reason to say that is I think they might I think they could be a little better and stronger against the rest you know from sort of sixth or seventh place down where a lot of teams most of the teams they played last year even in the bottom half of the league home and away they struggled against they might have got some results but they struggled against even in some of the relegation teams I think they will be stronger against these teams this year based on what based on the fact how bad they were last year they got a better fieldb they got maybe a bit more strength at at the back they've got signed a midfielder I I do think against the other teams in the league now this is not where United should be aiming right right and I said this at the start of the season I think they'll be stronger against the mediocre teams than they were last year I still think they're going to struggle Big Time against the top five or six but see that's that's the problem where man United's at because I I'm I'm I'm struggling to agree with you and so we're going to start arguing that man united are going to be better than the also runs that's that's where United are that we're sitting here talking about we would have a conversation about whether they're going to be able to dominate the FMS who who they fortunately beat you know they got beat of Brighton who are going to be mid-table no question your West Ham's and all these other teams we're actually going of a conversation of are they better than them and and there won't be a consensus there'll be there'll be three in one side and four in the other side to to whatever that's when man united are you absolutely no one near the top of the table we're talking about them been able to beat them the AL are we talking about them top four oh don't don't be silly where I'm coming from where if people are not if people are not understand where I'm the way they're going where I'm coming from is I don't think they'll get beat by three or four at home to Bournemouth this year like they did last year uh that's kind of where I'm at I think they'll be better at that and probably will pick up more points and have less embarrassing games but they are nowhere near and you saw it today and by the way if you watched City yesterday play against West Ham that was you could argue that was even slicker than Liverpool today probably was uh so you know that bar is up there arsenal were not so good and had their own problems but I'm just coming from the fact that we sat here last year and said how can you get battered by them at home how can you battered by how can you get battered by Burnley and take a a wonder goal by Bruno Fernandez to win but you had you get completely outplayed I'm I'm I'm saying they're going to be stronger against those teams and I'm they will be I think they will be but I think they are way out the depth still when it comes to the big boys [Music]