Real Madrid couldn’t win against Valencia on Sunday and Los Blancos suffered when the rival took the ball. Actually, Marcelino’s team had several chances to win the game with some counter attacks but Simone Zaza wasn’t accurate. Zidane had several important players unavailable like Sergio Ramos, Varane or Cristiano Ronaldo. For this reason, Casemiro had to play as a full back, leaving his role as a stopper. Every time the Brazilian is not in the midfield, Real Madrid suffer.
Actually, when Casemiro is not in the midfield, Real Madrid are not able to win one every three games. For instance, last season, Casemiro missed 24 games and Real Madrid couldn’t win 8 of them. For instance, the Brazilian didn’t play against Legia in the Champions League (3-3), or against Las Palmas (3-3), Eibar (1-1), Villarreal (1-1) in La Liga. He also played as a full back in the Copa del Rey against Celta Vigo (2-2), when Los Blancos were knocked out of the competition.
Casemiro admitted that he only wants to play and he doesn’t care if it’s in the midfield or in the defence. However, when the former Porto footballer is not in the midfield, the team suffers. Modric, Kroos or Kovacic are his replacements, and they’re great players, but Casemiro has become a key player for Zinedine Zidane.
When the French manager took over Benítez’s job, his first idea was leaving Casemiro on the bench to form a very offensive line-up. He rectified soon enough, because Zidane realized the importance of this player. Besides, he has also been proved as a very important player in the rival box, scoring important goals in the Champions League, including a great goal in the final against Juventus.
Now Zidane has another option in the squad with Marcos Llorente. The youngster is a stopper, but the manager didn’t trust him to play against Valencia. Perhaps, in the future, Llorente could replace Casemiro with guarantees, so the team doesn’t suffer when the Brazilian player is missing.
