Rio Ferdinand heaps praise on ‘intelligent’ Casemiro as Man Utd beat Everton

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand heaped praise on ‘intelligent’ midfielder Casemiro following Sunday’s win over Everton.

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Casemiro played the full 90 minutes as United beat Frank Lampard’s side 2-1 at Goodison Park to move up to fifth in the Premier League, providing the assist for Cristiano Ronaldo’s winning goal.

The 30-year-old Brazil international moved to Old Trafford this summer from Real Madrid and had been struggling for minutes, having been mostly limited to appearances from the bench, but has now started back-to-back games.

He played 82 minutes as United beat Omonia on Thursday and following victory over the Toffees on Sunday, Ferdinand singled out Casemiro for his work off the ball.

‘Casemiro has the experience,’ Ferdinand told BT Sport. ‘He’s won multiple Champions Leagues, he understands football.

‘Even though it’s a different stadium, a different environment, he will get used to it and adapt quickly because of his intelligence.

‘You don’t play at that level [at Real Madrid] without having a level of intelligence. Yes he started poorly, he gave the ball away for the goal, but as the manager said he grew into the game.

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>“He’s the only midfield player in the Man United set-up that knows how to defend instinctively” @rioferdy5 and @JoleonLescott were impressed with Casemiro’s performance against Everton ð pic.twitter.com/yQinXuaYp9

‘If you had a highlights reel on him today with the ball, you’d say he shouldn’t be playing maybe.

‘But without the ball, the positions that he took up, the way he regained possession, [the way he] didn’t allow [opposition] players to play the ball forward into dangerous areas, that is what you