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Casemiro’s performance against Japan was a microcosm of his past three seasons at club level.
A forgettable first half exposed the 34-year-old’s decreasing mobility on the biggest stage, after being repeatedly overrun by Japan’s energy when they burst through midfield. There were calls for his substitution at half-time, but an injury to Lucas Paqueta meant that Carlo Ancelotti had to shuffle his pack differently.
Electing to keep his No 5 on the field, the Brazil head coach made a subtle tactical tweak that saw Endrick enter the action and brought Matheus Cunha further to the left flank — which unlocked the attacking prowess of Vinicius Junior.
However, it was none of Brazil’s gifted attackers who kickstarted the comeback with a goal at the NRG Stadium in Houston.
It was Casemiro.
From derision to delight in a single afternoon, Casemiro continues to defy the suggestions that he can no longer operate at the highest level.
His trophy-laden career shows that he has nothing left to prove, but there cannot be any room for sentiment when considering how unforgiving knockout international football is.
A knack for scoring goals is welcome, but his primary remit is to hold down the midfield. Think of it like a mechanic breaking your car but then whipping up a fantastic carbonara — great, but not really what he is there for.
With Brazil’s upcoming clash with Norway providing another physical challenge in the blistering New Jersey heat, is Casemiro a help or hindrance to his team?
Such was the drop-off in form that Casemiro experienced at Manchester United, that he was omitted from Brazil’s Copa America squad in 2024 under previous coach Dorival Junior. It was only upon Ancelotti’s appointment as manager in 2025 that the midfielder was brought back into the fold after a year out.
You can understand why. Give Casemiro time and space in possession, and he can anchor the midfield with the same ease that saw him help Real Madrid to five Champions League victories — two under Ancelotti.
Sitting in front of the centre-back partnership of Gabriel and Marquinhos, he remains a crucial part of his side’s build-up. As shown in his player dashboard against Japan below, his actions are littered with circulated passes left and right — with defensive actions scattered in his own half to protect Brazil’s penalty area.
The issue surrounding Casemiro has been centred on his effectiveness off the ball.
No one loves a tackle more than the Brazil international, with his 13 “true tackles” attempted — which includes tackles, fouls committed and challenges lost — per 1,000 opponent touches being more than any other central midfielder in the Premier League last season.
It shows how much he loves to stick a foot in, but his propensity to go to ground so often means those challenges do not always come off. The warning sign against Japan came when Casemiro picked up a yellow card in the 14th minute for a clumsy foul on the edge of the area.
Looking back through the sequence, Brazil have good numbers back and there is little need for anyone to overcommit — but a lazy tackle from behind leads to a free kick in a dangerous area.
Perhaps that made him think twice when Japan opened the scoring through Kaishu Sano. An intercepted pass sees the Japan midfielder breeze beyond Casemiro through the heart of the pitch before scoring from distance.
It is easy to say after the fact, but Casemiro would have been better served defending the space (black arrow) rather than taking a front-footed approach towards the man (yellow arrow). With three Japanese players around him, the decision to immediately engage during such a transitional moment was incorrect.
That pair of crucial actions defined the first half, but it took barely 10 minutes for Casemiro to re-address the balance after the break.
Taking up a higher starting position, the 34-year-old should have scored earlier in the second half after ghosting into the box to see his diving header cleared off the line by Takehiro Tomiyasu. Minutes later, an unmarked run to the back post saw him meet Gabriel’s cross with excellent timing to power beyond Zion Suzuki.
It was no fluke. Casemiro’s timing and precision from aerial challenges have been a theme of his season at Manchester United — with eight headed goals in the Premier League being the most of any player across Europe’s top five leagues in 2025-26.
Many of those goals were from dead-ball situations — assisted by the record-breaking Bruno Fernandes — but with set pieces being particularly important during international knockout football, Casemiro’s aerial prowess alone would be worth keeping him in the side.
“Casemiro is a leader,” Ancelotti said in support of his midfielder after the Japan game.
“He knows his position very well, how to play his position. No one is teaching him how he has to play in his role. That’s very important.”
Casemiro was able to coast through performances against poor Haiti and Scotland sides in two of Brazil’s group stage games, but Morocco provided much sterner opposition that exposed some worrying gaps in midfield.
Morocco consistently found the spare man when working the ball across the pitch. As shown below, Casemiro was flat-footed in his initial duel and horribly out of position when looking to defend the space he had vacated.
Morocco were able to expose the space with ease during the first half.
Here is another example in the opening 45 minutes, where Brazil’s midfield is shifted over to the near side to condense the space around Morocco. However, Noussair Mazraoui evades Casemiro’s challenge far too easily before Bilal El Khannouss releases Achraf Hakimi on the far side.
Once again, Brazil’s midfield is quickly retreating towards their own goal as Morocco pile forward.
There is an extent to which Casemiro has not been helped by those around him. Ancelotti’s use of Bruno Guimaraes and Paqueta in midfield has not achieved the required balance of defensive awareness with physical strength and energy.
It means that Casemiro is often left isolated in the centre, creating further tensions for Brazil that have cascading effects when players are pulled out of position.
This was the case for Morocco’s opener, where Casemiro had eyes on two players at once while his team-mates failed to cut out the pass ahead of him. Closing down neither Moroccan player left him in no man’s land, allowing Brahim Diaz to thread the ball through the heart of Brazil’s defence for Ismael Saibari to score.
Looking at the wider squad at Ancelotti’s disposal, there is no outstanding candidate to replace Casemiro if he were to be rotated on Sunday.
The fact that a 32-year-old Fabinho has been looked to from the bench tells its own story, but the youthful profiles of Danilo Santos and Ederson do provide alternatives that would be deserving of more minutes in the United States.
“Don Carlo” has a knack for making the right decisions in the dugout, but even he would admit that Casemiro was fortunate to turn his performance around against Japan.
He has felt like a solution and a problem for Brazil at this World Cup.
