“A terrible performance from Casemiro summed up the whole bad match of MU against their opponent Liverpool,” The Sun began their analysis of Manchester United’s 0-3 loss to The Kop, which included a direct reference of Casemiro’s name. When Liverpool’s style of play blew Casemiro off his feet, it’s easy to see why he was the one who let Manchester United down. His errors directly contributed to two of United’s three goals conceded. The first was a through ball that reached Gravenberch near the home side’s end, setting up a counterattack that culminated in Luis Diaz’s first header.

After Luis Diaz successfully challenged for the ball due to Casemiro’s sloppy handling of the ball in the second mistake, Diaz himself scored to put Liverpool up 2-0 on the counter-attack. Casemiro committed the double error that ultimately cost the Red Devils the game, but Diaz finished his double.

Even after replacing Nemanja Vidic with Casemiro to start the second half, Manchester United’s fortunes did not improve. Even Man Utd’s third goal—this time from youthful sensation Mainoo—came from a horrific error. The Kop went on a rapid counter-attack when Mainoo lost control of the ball and allowed Allister to easily steal it. Mohamed Salah scored the game-winning goal with a pinpoint pass from Szoboszlai.

One may argue that Manchester United lost this match because Liverpool could have won all three points even without playing their very best. Even though Casemiro and Mainoo were the ones who blundered three times each, the rest of the defense was just as awful. For example, in the first loss, Mazraoui was positioned too high up, and in the second goal, Diaz was easily assisted by Lisandro Martinez, who failed to mark him.

Even the newcomer De Ligt failed to do his job; he frequently gave Diaz and Szoboszlai room to manoeuvre. Rashford was unable to mark Arnold, Dalot frequently rushed up to attack, and newcomer Zirkzee had little impact on the offense.

Man Utd’s humiliating loss leaves them with few excuses, and coach Erik ten Hag must do more to transform his team’s image.