Casemiro finally looks to be the answer to Manchester United's midfield puzzle

It should not have taken this long for a club of Manchester United’s grandeur and resources to bring in a player of Casemiro’s quality to the heart of midfield.

While their rivals populated the key anchor role with world-class talent – Fernandinho and Rodri at Manchester City, Fabinho at Liverpool and N’Golo Kante at Chelsea - United have spent, and wasted on the whole, more than £1 billion in the post Alex Ferguson era on a host of ill-fitting players in other positions, and made do with a central midfield not fit for purpose.

As is the case in many aspects of their transfer policy, United seem to have got there in the end, years after their rivals. Eyebrows were raised at the fee shelled out for a 30-year-old in the summer, even more so after Casemiro’s poor control led to Everton’s opener on Sunday. But over the course of the next 85 minutes, the Brazilian showed United fans what their side had been missing, for far too long.

It just did not make any logical sense. What good did it do spending £90 million on Paul Pogba when he was forced to play alongside Scott McTominay, or splashing the cash on Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid when he had Daley Blind as his defensive option behind him?

McTominay and Blind are good players in their own right, and have had successful careers on the international stage, but neither are of Fernandinho’s class, or could hold a candle to the breathless defensive work-rate of Kante.

What’s more, the fact both have been utilised as central defenders for their respective countries tells you all you need to know about their stock in midfield.

A bizarre neglect of such a key position stretches back further, even in the successful final years of Ferguson’s tenure. Wayne Rooney, England and