Peter Schmeichel blames Manchester United star for not ‘helping’ Casemiro in Arsenal defeat

Peter Schmeichel says Manchester United are playing like a team of individuals (Premier League Productions)

Andre Onana came under fire from Peter Schmeichel on Sunday for failing to “assist” Casemiro in Manchester United’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal.

After Onana’s clearance, Casemiro was heavily criticized for his role in Arsenal’s victory at Old Trafford. This was because Kai Havertz had plenty of room to receive the ball and cross it for Leandro Trossard to score.

However, Schmeichel feels that Onana ought to have done more to advance Casemiro up the field and that Trossard’s first-half winner was a sign of United’s lack of team spirit under Ten Hag.

Schmeichel told Premier League Productions, “There are definitely a few mistakes in there from a defending point of view.”

“So, you have Casemiro. We discussed this prior to the game, and I believe he demonstrated that on Monday night. Casemiro is not a center-half.”

As a team, you must support one another; teammates must support one another.

“Casemiro perseveres, but Onana is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Onana ought to be stepping up behind him and encouraging him to move forward.” Instead of doing that, he genuinely remains on his line.

As we discuss working as a team, we need to support one another. You talk about how well Arsenal performed there [for the goal], how well they timed it and looked at each other, but Manchester United’s current issue is that they are playing very much like an individual team and don’t look like a unit.

The mindset of “when you get the ball, I’m going to try and score a goal and I’m not going to look at any teammates, I’m just going to try myself” is perfectly exemplified today.

“This is what’s gone wrong with Manchester United’s style of play, in my opinion, when we discuss standards and what that style is. I won’t say the team isn’t coached, but there doesn’t seem to be a structure or a concept of, ‘when we do this, these are your options, this is what you can do, or pass it out to there.'”

Schmeichel, who attended United’s 4-3 loss to Chelsea last month at Stamford Bridge with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, thinks the club’s new co-owner will have a challenging time improving the team during the summer transfer window.

“First and foremost, Sir Jim is an authentic football enthusiast. He is capable of singing along to his favorite songs and expressing his thoughts whenever he feels like it. It was quite refreshing to have someone who shares his passion for football and Manchester United,” Schmeichel remarked.

In my opinion, he is joining at a point when everything is collapsing due to choices made a decade ago.

Now is the time to set a boundary and declare, “From now on, we do this.” People are complaining that he has emailed and done this, as we have seen in the media, but changes will be painful.

As a Manchester United supporter, I’m hoping that this summer will bring a major announcement or something significant that signals a shift in the team’s direction.

“We have tried, really, really tried, and we cannot carry on in the same manner, believing we can buy players and buy our way out of it.” We cannot continue to be the football team in the world with the highest net spend over the last ten years.

“We need to be astute, develop players as the team has historically done for its most prosperous times, be astute and scout extremely well, do our research on players, and ensure that we bring in the right kind of players.”

‘When we look at the squads today, we have one team [Arsenal] that is fighting for the championship and one team that is not. The one team [tough] has depth at every position on the bench, so when they substitute players, you won’t really notice a difference other than a slight increase in energy; however, the caliber won’t suffer.

However, when it comes to Man United, all of the young players who have never before appeared on the team are asked to step in and perform that role. That isn’t Manchester United’s main focus, at all.

What modifications are planned? I’m not sure; some are calling for a new manager, others for specific players to be let go. We’ll have to wait and see, but something has to give, I think.

One of the main issues is that players have been forced to sign long contracts at extremely high wages because they were signed for extremely high transfer fees that must be paid back over a predetermined number of years. And are the players you signed going to leave if they don’t play well enough? When their careers come to an end, will some players leave all that money behind? Not in my opinion.

FFP is still a factor that needs to be taken into account; United needs to exercise caution right now. Therefore, making those changes—especially removing players we don’t want from the team—is harder than we may think.