Ferdinand: Man Utd star will feel 'disrespected' by Ten Hag after Man City loss

Rio Ferdinand believes Casemiro will feel ‘disrespected’ by Erik ten Hag after he was left out of the starting line-up for Manchester United’s defeat to Manchester City on Sunday.

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Ten Hag’s side were hammered at the Etihad Stadium as hat-tricks from Erling Haaland and Phil Foden sealed a 6-3 victory for City.

Casemiro, meanwhile, has started just one game in the Europa League since his £70 million move to United from Real Madrid and the five-time Champions League winner was named as a substitute for the match against Pep Guardiola’s side.

Casemiro replaced Scott McTominay with 31 minutes remaining but Ferdinand believes Ten Hag will need to carefully manage the Brazil international after his subdued start at Old Trafford.

‘Casemiro’s another one, he’s sitting there going, ‘I’ve won five Champions Leagues with this team’,’ Ferdinand told his FIVE YouTube channel after United’s defeat to City.

‘I’ve heard people today say, ‘if he plays he needs legs around him, he can’t play with Eriksen and Bruno’. This geezer played with two snails in Modric and Toni Kroos – he just knows his way around a football pitch.

‘He is a fantastic defensive midfielder, one of, if not the best, in the world before he came to Man United.

‘When it was suggested that Casemiro’s form for United meant he should not have started ahead of McTominay for the game against City, Ferdinand replied: ‘You can’t say that.

‘The geeze hasn’t been given a chance, he hasn’t been given a fair crack of the whip. He’s come in and played in a Europa League game against some dead team.

‘He ain’t been given a start in the team when he’s fit and ready, he’s regressed in terms of fitness, so he’s now worse off than when he came. He still had to get up to speed when he came from that league to this league.

‘I wonder the impact it’s having on someone like him. Yes he’s experience and whatnot, but he must be sitting there thinking, ‘wow, I’m happy to be here at Man United but I’m feeling a little bit disrespected here, given what I’ve done’. I’d be surprised if he’s not feeling like that.

‘I think we will [see Ronaldo and Casemiro play], but I think it’s the context of what games they’re playing in – they could be playing midweek Europa game. That won’t sit well with them.

‘They’d be sitting there going, ‘wow, I’m like the Rumbelows Cup player right now, the Carabao Cup player’.

‘These are the sub-plots to what Ten Hag has to deal with. This is what management is about, he’s got to manage that type of player, that type of ego, the pride that comes with these types of players. If you’re not playing, you’ll see a difference in the way they look at you now, and that’s what you’ve got to manage.

‘He didn’t have those problems at Ajax with the players he had, he was very much in control, the master of the universe there. Here you’ve got big egos to deal with and this is the task when you come to a top club.’

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