Why Casemiro Holds The Key For Manchester United in The Europa League Final

Casemiro's £60million move to Man United in 2022 has not exactly gone to plan.

In many ways, Casemiro's time at Manchester United works as a near-perfect analogy for the club's fortunes over the last three years.

Desperate to make a statement in the transfer window in the infancy of Erik ten Hag's reign, the club needed a midfielder, and who better to bring to Old Trafford than one of legendary proportions?

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Five Champions Leagues and a stupid amount of experience at the top level and still only 30 - sounds like the perfect short- to mid-term solution, right? After all, he's the perfect man for the youngsters to look up to, and a calm head on well-travelled shoulders to bring some much-needed mental fortitude to the club.

And then they went and spent £60million, handed him a four-year deal with an optional fifth, on a wage of around £375,000-a-week, and the alarm bells began to ring according to the Daily Mail.

Casemiro has not inherently been 'bad' as such. But has he been the transformative signing he was brought in - and seemingly paid - to become? Not even his wife, who has been in his corner while the court of public opinion has had its say, could argue that much.

Now, though, after countless other ideas have fallen short of expectation at a club with more serious issues than just one player, the Brazilian has carved himself out a chance to change his Man United legacy. Often used as a symbol for United's recruitment - described this month by Gary Neville as 'abhorrent' - his stint has been largely unspectacular, but in the Europa League this term he has been rejuvenated.

Bruno Fernandes aside, he's arguably been their most important player in the competition. Particularly against Athletic Club, both before and after the red card that ultimately turned the tie from cagey to embarrassing for the Spanish side.

Yes he scored twice across both semi-final legs, but it was his cool head under pressure that finally reared its head in one of the most hostile environments many of his team-mates will have ever had the chance to play in.

At half-time in that game, United were 3-0 and a man up, and it wasn't the second leg that won them the tie, but the second half in Bilbao, where they stifled the hosts and saw out a mostly calm, collected, and incident-free 45 minutes.

Even if Athletic Club had pulled one back, the pressure inside that already febrile San Mames ground would have turned the game. But as virtually the only man on the field with experience of the biggest stages of all, Casemiro grabbed his side by the scruff of neck.

According to reports, the Brazilian will likely undergo a wage increase should his side make the Champions League next season, after it was slashed by the club's return to the continent's second-tier competition this term.

But for a player of Casemiro's pedigree the greater motivation will hands down be in proving that he is still even a fraction of the player he once was, and in Bilbao he proved that emphatically.

He could be seen ordering and point to Manuel Ugarte every time the Uruguayan gave up possession or was slightly out of position, and the rest of his team-mates followed suit.

Fernandes may have been captain, but Casemiro was the conductor. You could see on his face how much this game meant to him, something we have only rarely seen in the last three years.

He took up a deeper role in midfield; now the game was being played in front of him, rather than behind him, where his lack of pace couldn't come back to bite him. The result? Well, we already know that.

It's been a difficult season for the Brazilian veteran, not that it's been a walk in the park for anyone at Old Trafford. But early on in the campaign there were genuine suggestions he could have played his last game in United red.