It is said of Casemiro, perhaps due to his physical condition and his constitution, that it is difficult for him to start. It is a tagline that has accompanied him in several early season in a very fleeting way, soon forgotten due to his high performance later. But this season is having something different, for the substitution against Real and for his strange performance against Betis. After getting entangled in such unfashionable grounds in him, in front of the Valladolid (9:30 p.m., Movistar LaLiga) you can regain your old normality.
In the Reale Arena, to the general surprise, Zidane left Casemiro on the bench. An anomaly due to what the Brazilian represents in the dressing room and on the pitch, but also from the statistics. In 2019-20 he was the player with the most minutes for Madrid, 4,081 (88.33% of the total), often bordering on the risk of injury because what weighed on the rest was the need to have him. There is no sign that reflects that status as his being the only position without naturally doubling on the roster. To the league premiere, however, he joined in 69 ', but his participation stood out as insufficient.
Only one substitution in 2019-20
In Villamarín things did not improve. Appearances are sometimes deceptive, and from what his ownership promised to what happened next there was too much distance. He was the Madrid player who missed the most passes (14), lost the most balls (19) and dribbled the most times (2, like Carvajal), which he could not make up or his leadership in recoveries (10) and anticipations (3). The team noted the weakness of their correction factor, which was certainly not helped by Emerson's heavy stomp, the kind that crawls through the night.
Casemiro, what in 2019-20 he was only a substitute once, in Mestalla to make sure he reaches the Classic because he was warned, he has been moving in a very strange territory for ten days. From a Di Stéfano that he made his own in the final stretch of the League as he had previously achieved with the Santiago Bernabéu, he has to put heading towards its natural environment.