Casemiro has bewildering glimpse of topsy-turvy life at Manchester United

For Carlos Henrique Casimiro it was a most bewildering introduction to the often nonsensical world of Manchester United. But a perfect education all the same.

Nothing demonstrated the inconsistencies of Erik ten Hag’s new team, or the scale of the new manager’s task, better than their ability to reduce a Liverpool team with Premier League title pretensions to mediocre fodder at Old Trafford. And just nine days after they had plumbed further depths of their own at Brentford.

Nothing symbolised the dysfunction at the heart of United clearer than the noise that greeted the club’s latest big-money recruit when he stepped onto the pitch before kick off. There were of course cheers for Casemiro as he held aloft a red shirt with his name but no number, although they were soon drowned out by chants of “We want Glazers out” from the Stretford End. The same chant echoed around the stadium moments after Jadon Sancho slotted the hosts into a thoroughly deserved lead against the old enemy. Liverpool fans responded with shouts of “Up the Glazers” while holding hundreds of pictures of Joel Glazer’s face aloft.

The biggest game in English football and both sets of supporters were singing about an American family that has presided over one side’s decline, the other having been in the same boat just over a decade ago. United’s first win of the season at least dragged attention back to where it should always be.

Their merited victory rounded off a hectic and head-spinning day for Casemiro who, having bid a tearful farewell to Real Madrid in the morning, arrived at Old Trafford several hours before kick off to take in his new environment. First impressions will have included a disenchanted fanbase, with thousands protesting against the