In 2024, Jamie Carragher infamously claimed that ‘the football had left’ Casemiro, but the Liverpool legend has performed a climbdown on his stinging criticism from two years ago
Jamie Carragher has finally admitted that the football hasn’t left Manchester United star Casemiro after all. Two years after his now infamous criticism of the Brazilian midfielder, Carragher has performed a belated U-turn.
It comes after Casemiro, who’s announced that he’ll leave United at the end of this season, scored and assisted in Sunday’s dramatic 3-2 win at home to Fulham. The former Real Madrid stalwart opened the scoring with a towering header before setting up Matheus Cunha for the Red Devils’ second goal.
Casemiro’s performance helped United make it three wins and out of three under new manager Michael Carrick, a run which the 33-year-old has been instrumental in. It’s a far cry from the performances that he was putting in towards the end of the 2023-24 season.
After United were thrashed 4-0 at Crystal Palace under Erik ten Hag in May 2024, Carragher declared: “I think Casemiro should know tonight that he should only have another three games left at the top level.
“The next two league games and the cup final, then he should be thinking, I need to go to the MLS or Saudi [Arabia].
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“This has to stop because we are watching one of the greats of modern times I always remember the saying ‘leave the football before the football leaves you’.
“The football’s left him. At this top level, he needs to call it a day at this level and move.”
Two years on, during which Casemiro has remained a regular starter for United, Carragher has confessed that he was wrong. “It is now fair to say the football has not left him,” Carragher told Sky Sports.
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“Considering what he’s producing this season in the Premier League, and not just Fulham at home, you think what he did last week against Arsenal away and Manchester City at home.
“Casemiro is well within his rights to, if he wants to come back at me and say, ‘leave the punditry before the punditry’s left you!’ He could definitely get one of those back in. Credit to him, he looks a completely different player. He looks like a different player physically as well.
“Even when I said that, you looked at him and he looked like an old man coming to the end of his time as a player. And whether he let himself go a little bit, or now he’s being ultra professional, physically, he looks completely different.”
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