Manchester United head to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon without Casemiro, a significant absence for a player who has been central to United\u2019s structure this season. Villa have already beaten Arsenal and Manchester City at home, so the challenge facing Ruben Amorim\u2019s side is intensified by the Brazilian midfielder\u2019s unavailability.<\/p>\n
Casemiro, the 33-year-old, will not make the journey to Villa Park because he is serving a one-match suspension after accumulating five yellow cards in the Premier League. His latest booking was shown in the 4\u20134 draw with Bournemouth last Monday. This will be only the second match he has missed for United this season; he was also absent for the 3\u20131 defeat at Brentford in September following a red card picked up against Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Casemiro has started all but three games this season, and those matches without him have produced defeats for Amorim\u2019s side. The sequence includes the shock second-round humiliation at Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup and top-flight losses at Manchester City and Brentford. United will be desperate to avoid a fourth successive away loss when playing without him.<\/p>\n
When Amorim has omitted Casemiro this season Manuel Ugarte has been the replacement used. The Uruguayan has not impressed in his rare opportunities, and question marks remain over his long-term future at Old Trafford. With Villa\u2019s midfield featuring Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara, the manager must make the right call. Kobbie Mainoo is presented in the squad as the only other viable alternative to Casemiro and Ugarte.<\/p>\n
Selection in central midfield will be pivotal to how United approach a stern away test against a Villa side proven to be dangerous at home. The absence of Casemiro forces tactical choices that could shape the immediate course of United\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Casemiro is suspended for United’s trip to Villa after a fifth booking; Ugarte or Mainoo may step in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,179,172],"tags":[1305,1012,939],"class_list":["post-5282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-bench-selection","tag-burnley-style","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}