Casemiro started a UCL final win two years ago, now stats illustrate his decline

Typically in this month of the year, Casemiro would compete in title deciders and look forward to another Champions League final.

Such moments of wonder are now a distant memory for the Brazilian. His glories with Real Madrid must feel as though they belong to a different lifetime.

Instead, one of the most gifted defensive midfielders of his generation finds himself lost in a dysfunctional Manchester United team being told by pundits to 'call it a day.'

For the record Casemiro is only 32 and it's a mere two years since he won the fifth of his Champions League winners medals, when Real beat Liverpool 1-0 in Paris.

Hopes of getting back into Europe's top competition have long since faded for Erik ten Hag's United and after Monday's humiliating 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace, all continental competition may yet pass them by next season.

In one of the lowest moments since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, United were outclassed at Selhurst Park with Casemiro - again playing as a makeshift centre-back - looking woefully out of his depth.

That was seized upon by Jamie Carragher in the Sky Sports studio, who said: 'Casemiro, deadly serious, should know himself tonight as an experienced player that he should only have another three games left at the top level. The next two league games and the [FA] Cup final.

'And he should be thinking: "I need to go to the MLS or Saudi". I'm deadly serious. He's ageing, the people around him need to tell him this has to stop.

'The football has left him at this top level. He needs to call it a day at this level of football and move.'

It's definitely not how Casemiro, who vowed to fix United's problems when he left the European champions in search of a fresh challenge in 2022, saw things panning out.

His first