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[Chris Wheeler/Sami Mokbel] Casemiro and Raphael Varane are heading for Manchester United exits
(www.dailymail.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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It’s happens sometimes when you spend big on older players. People like to think that top players all stay at peak level deep into their 30s but many do tail off fast.
Someone like Case who has won it all tends to fall off quicker and its not like United has big ambitions. Doesnt do much for your motivation.
It happens but it shouldn’t and wouldn’t to these 4-5 time champions league winners there’s some common factors in the dips in performance with these two players we’ve seen it with Ronaldo as well.
I actually don't think most people think this. I think most people HOPE that top players extend their time at the top, but are well aware of the evidence that it's unlikely.
Soccernomics has their research saying most players peak at 27 IIRC. And that seems to be commonly accepted. Hence why there are so many revelatory articles about players 30+ continuing to do well, Mo for example.
Like Koulibaly with us tbh
Also how Casemiro got REALLY fat in the offseason.
One would think he would try to stay in shape now he is over 30. Nope. Party all the way and pick up a lot of weight that needed to be shed really fast.
Tbh it’s really quite common for guys who’ve won everything towards the end of their careers to come back in not the best shape. They’re human after all, some players stay super motivated into their deep 30s but I don’t blame anyone who lets themself go a little bit. It’s more you don’t wanna be on the hook for lying such a player a quarter million a week cos 3 years ago he was a world beater!
Schweinsteiger
Everytime you mention someone over 30 might decline suddenly you are bombarded with people claiming that there’s “no way a professional like him” could decline and that sports science has gotten so advanced that it essentially trumps biology meaning there’s no reason players would decline one bit before they’re 36 at the earliest.
Specially if they're Brazilian, Marcelo took a massive dive right after 30.
Many people often also ignore the human element of this. They think footballers are robots like in their games of FIFA on PS5. There are so many examples of footballers losing their drive to stay at peak performance or who want to move onto other interests.
Casemiro also went from a culture where excellence is expected to a culture where it’s not.
This wave of guys like Ronaldo, Messi, Ibra, Thiago Silva, Modric, have made people forged that 90% of players over 32 are going to drop their performance lvl. People forget these are professionals with their hands on top level technology, nutricion, recovering etc. Also 2 of them were born with probably 1 in a million natural genaracional talent. That and like you said games like Fifa and FM have made people look at older player in a diferent way ( which is not all 100% correct). Hell, 15 years ago, a 29 year old player would be called ancient.
FIFA and FM very much help ingrain the idea that players are washed up and on the decline as soon as they hit 30 - which is the opposite of what you're saying.
I get your point about players like Modric, Messi, Ibra, Silva, etc, distorting people's opinions of how long a player can be at their peak for - but the FIFA/FM part is nonsense.
This subreddit and other social media were hilarious when they signed them. Like it's logical to question the merits of spending that much on players of that age. Sure there's some who have held off their declines, but the majority of players dip at a certain age. For the money United spent, they could have bought far better long term options.
Casemiro also played a ridiculous amount of games and any type of legginess at a position like DM gets exposed instantly in the PL.
Look at Fabinho ffs. Went from elite to literally washed in like 10 months. Still one of the craziest declines I’ve seen
Players decline nobody ever denies that
Casemrio was great 4 months ago so was Varane
The difference is team doing bad so you say this, it's not about age it's more about team performance
I just gave an example of Xhaka, do u think prime Xhaka was worse than 30 year old Xhaka? Or was it fans scapegoating due to club performances
Xhaka has not declined yet. Nothing in my comment suggests that I think every player 30 or over has started to decline.
Prime Xhaka is now innit? He was mediocre for years and was a liability for a red card.
he was still a beast though, us gooners just seemed to loathe him. I always thought he was sick af
How many red cards has Xaka compared to Casemiro?
casemiro hasn't been great since february
well xhaka also had other issues that caused him to try to do to much thus lose what he was/is good at look not as great.
always liked him even through his bad spell ofc.
didnt help that he was signed when wenger was still there then gone through a few different mangers with different styles.
its prob the same at man u because different managers rate different /want different players or players that they want and not what they have as well.
besides the fact that they are older ofc
Yup! I remember getting attacked here for questioning the value of Casemiro at his age/price/contract cos who wants to believe that a player they like might decline soon. Was the same with Peresic who everyone assured me would be a wonderful wingback adapting to PL aged 33!!!
It’s a real minority who play deep into their 30s, handing out big contracts to such players should be done with real care and scrutiny unless you are a monopoly money club then whatever gamble away!
A few high profile players elongated their careers and now everyone on here thinks all footballers can play past their mid thirties and goalkeepers begin their prime at 30
It happens when you buy a player who is good at quick progressive passes, good at defense, and great with quick possessions and you have him hold the ball, be the sole pivot, and not pair him with anyone that fits him. Using him as a sole pivot is especially a problem, that doesn't make any sense in the modern game where every good team has two pivots, much less with a player that isn't used to it
I’ve said this many times, anyone who saw KCM play knew Casemiro barely had any on ball responsibilities.
As soon as I saw that Ten Hag was asking him to spray the ball around the pitch like prime Pirlo I knew there’d be a problem. He can give you a few good passes and dribbles but he can’t do it every game for 90 minutes, never has ever had to.
Now All of a sudden he’s “washed”, he’s far from washed imo. Any team looking for a pure destroyer type CDM, and already has good ball playing CMs would benefit him greatly. United’s other midfielders aside from Bruno are not up to standard.
In basketball it's typically that after you hit like 31, 32 you have a 15-20% chance of injury that you never really recover from. Idk if it's happened to casemiro here or not though.