Real Madrid defensive midfielder Casemiro is one of the best players in the world regardless of position, yet he isn’t revered as such.
If you ask most Real Madrid fans who the team’s best player was last season, they would quickly name Casemiro as the MVP.
Casemiro was the player who could most directly challenge Lionel Messi as La Liga’s top player in the 2019-2020 season. In fact, Case shut down Messi in the second Clasico of the campaign, turning in a brilliant performance at the Santiago Bernabeu that should have received more attention.
All season long, Casemiro was a menace. He made tackle after tackle, read the game impeccably, and pressured attackers into mistakes, slowing down offenses with his exquisite marking. Casemiro would even make moves in the attack, carrying the ball into the final third, making deep passes, or scoring goals as he did with his brace in a 2-1 win over Sevilla.
There is no doubt that Casemiro is the best defensive midfielder in the world. Nobody at the position brings his level of quality in the tackle and his reading of the game defensively. Throw in his technical quality and energy in the attack, and you get a player who is undeniably world-class.
According to WhoScored.com, Casemiro had the second-highest rating among all players with a minimum of 20 appearances and joined Leicester City’s Ricardo Pereira as the only players with 2,200+ minutes played to have a 7.50 rating.
This statistic speaks to Casemiro’s consistency. He wasn’t just Real Madrid’s workhorse. With no alternatives at the No. 6 position at the Bernabeu last season, Casemiro was overworked, yet still managed to consistently produce at the highest possible level.
Casemiro averaged 3.3 tackles per game and 2.1 interceptions per game in 2019-2020, and only three other players in all of Europe’s top five leagues had both three tackles per game and two interceptions per game last season.
Despite his statistical dominance, importance to the team, and quality in all phases of the game, Casemiro doesn’t receive enough widespread recognition for being one of the world’s best players.
His lack of plaudits likely stem from a few factors. Firstly, defensive midfielders tend to get overlooked. I’m not talking about registas or holding midfielders, such as Thiago Alcantara of Bayern Munich. I’m talking about players like Casemiro who mostly put in work defensively and do a lot of the dirty work for the team beyond passing and offensive output.
Secondly, while Casemiro mostly plies his trade defensively, his defensive impact isn’t totally found in statistics. Sometimes, defensive midfielders who top the charts in tackles and interceptions aren’t better than players ranked lower, since someone like Casemiro won’t have to make many tackles or interceptions since he stops a pass from occurring in the first place or helps bring pressure for another player to make a tackle (or the attacking player to make a poor pass).
And thirdly, on a team like Real Madrid, it’s easy for a consistent, defensive midfielder like Casemiro to get overshadowed by in-form attackers. Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior, and others are more likely to make headlines than someone like Casemiro. It’s understandable, but it’s a shame that Case isn’t regarded as a superstar on the level of La Liga’s best players.