Manchester United must not stop at Casemiro if they are to succeed under Erik ten Hag

With the signing of Casemiro, Manchester United have finally signed the fabled but rarely seen defensive midfielder they have been missing for the last five years. It's understood that the midfielder will cost £60m + £10m in addons and will not be available for the club's game against Liverpool on Monday.

The deal isn't great; United have basically refunded the £85m that Real Madrid spent on Casemiro's replacement Aurelien Tchouameni this summer. He is also nearly 31 and joining on high wages over the course of a four-year deal, with the option for the club to extend his contract by a further year.

But while this deal doesn't really make sense in the long term, in the short-term United are getting an excellent player and Erik ten Hag is getting a destroyer in midfield who can help the team protect against transitions and win the ball back higher up the pitch. He is a signing that 'secures the floor rather than raises the ceiling.

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These 'floor securers' are signings that United need to make. You would hope that with someone like Casemiro in the side they would never face the embarrassment of losing 4-0 to Brentford ever again, but while the Brazilian does add stability, he does have question marks over him that the club need to address.

At Real Madrid, Casemiro played in a midfield trio that included Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, some of the best players in possession the world has ever seen. But this means that the Brazilian was only tasked with keeping it simple; he didn't regularly progress the ball up the pitch or play a crucial role while the Spanish side had control of the ball.

United currently don't have any players