Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has claimed that Casemiro’s absence from the starting eleven played a part in his former club’s defeat to Newcastle on Sunday.

The Brazilian is currently serving a four-match suspension for his red card against Southampton, and Scholes says the Red Devils are not the same team without him:

“Casemiro is a big loss – we’ve seen what he’s brought to this Manchester United team in terms of experience and leadership. Newcastle played really well, if you walked away from this game and they’d scored four or five you wouldn’t be surprised. Man United need a big bounce back after that.”

Casemiro would have certainly broken up play and made United made harder to play through than they were against the Magpies at the weekend.

As Scholes rightly points out, there was only ever really one team in the game at St James’ Park and the home side could have easily scored more than the two they managed.

Casemiro won’t be in the squad when Erik ten Hag‘s side take on Brentford at home on Wednesday night, while he will serve the final game of his ban against Everton this weekend. He will make a timely return for the Europa League quarter-final first leg versus Sevilla on Thursday week.