Life is hard without Casemiro

Prior

on The 15th of September, in the heat of a strange evening of embarrassment in Bilbao, Julen Lopetegui brought together the template at the hotel concentration prior to leaving to San Mamés and to the surprise of those present announced that Casemiro would be a substitute in favor of Ceballos. The 45 minutes of the game the coach saw him as black took the first of a series of decisions desperate. Got Casemiro and retired to Camila, but by then the cracks turned to potholes. In San Mamés, Lopetegui lost their first points in the League, and undertook a gradual fall after challenging a law that no coach of Madrid has been able to alter from that Xabi Alonso was traded to Bayern in 2014. The rule is simple: the computer does not work without Casemiro.

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Now, the problem corresponds to Santiago Solari. A sprain in the right ankle left Casemiro out of the expedition to Ipurua, last Saturday, and Solari not only lost his first match since taking the bench: the Madrid was goleado (3-0) after getting eight shots on goal, the same as we did Barca in the Camp Nou. The defense is vulnerable if the midfielder brazilian does not protect the plants, and in Rome the news is not more positive: Casemiro remains low.

The template only provides a natural replacement in the central midfield brazilian. This is Marcos Llorente, so little used that in the last two days of League has been ruled in favour of Fede Valverde. “There are different players that can fulfill that function,” said Solari yesterday. “Some of the plants could be placed as a midfielder; Ceballos has done well, better against Celtic than against Eibar; Fede Valverde and Kroos can also play there... And Llorente is probably the most similar to Casemiro in the template”.

The difficulty of replacing Casemiro, 26 years old, is directly proportional to his stature as a specialist. World champion with Brazil in 1994, Mazinho weighted without hesitation to his successor: “I see a player essential to the system of the Madrid. It is a guard dog and is perfectly combined with Modric and Kroos. The security that it provides is fundamental to a team that rises so to the attack. He will gun a line that cuts all of the repercussions of the contrary, and with the ball is very intelligent. He has a good shot and nods well. It's a Betist jeep!”.

There are players of showcasing and players that make it look others. The latter are those who are not when the computers are broken down. Solari already found that Casemiro corresponds to this species. His first big tactical as coach of Madrid came against Valladolid in LaLiga, in the 56th minute, when it replaced Casemiro to introduce Isco. The team is broken. Only the goal from the rebound that led to Vinicius saved to Madrid, who received up to 12 shots.

Donato Gama da Silva and central midfielder brazilian Athletic and Sporty in the 90's, notes that his fellow countryman has earned the status of irreplaceable: “Casemiro has improved a lot defensively. Today is a bulwark. Brazil was eliminated from the World when Casemiro was suspended against Belgium”.

After four seasons and a half, the balance of games won with and without Casemiro is deafening. With the brazilian real Madrid is imposed in more than 70% of the meetings. Without it, in less than 60%.

“When he came from Brazil sobreactuaba in bullying,” says Raul Caneda, Spanish coach, who has worked in LaLiga and in the Premier; “but as we began to relax, Casemiro showed that he knows how to play. Is not Feature or Busquets but not the lost, and gives continuity to the game. Is very good with the ball and has the energy necessary to do what Kroos and Modric are not able to do without the ball. A team is a green building, some parts harmonize with each other. Casemiro is not clairvoyant but it makes the good play much better.”

Toni Kroos said in the locker room on the night of the 1-0 win in Mendizorroza, when Lopetegui knew that he was sentenced. “I'm not Casemiro”, he announced, after the technical withdrawal of the brazilian in the 60 minute, and try it with him ahead of the power plants in a bet of last instance which ended in defeat.

Solari should invent something new or in Rome, Madrid will be exposed.