Scott McTominay is keeping the Brazilian out on merit – much to the dismay of fans

The message to Casemiro is clear – he is going to have to earn his place in this Manchester United team. The five-time Champions League-winner may have arrived at Old Trafford to great fanfare and with a £60million price tag – but shifting Scott McTominay is proving more of a challenge than many of the midfielders he has dominated on the pitch in such a distinguished career.

He is the latest to realise reputation counts for little in Erik ten Hag’s United revolution.

And rightly so for a club that has signed one super star after another during nine years of failure post Sir Alex Ferguson.

This is a new era under their Dutch manager – and in only a few months in the job, he has proven he is prepared to take the difficult decisions. GOAL takes a deeper look at the situation.

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Casemiro need only have spoken to former Real teammates, Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane, to know the situation he would be walking into.

Both have been sidelined in Ten Hag’s early reign. Both have been forced to work their way into his plans – with Ronaldo still yet to fully convince, even after getting his first goal of the season against Sheriff Tiraspol on Thursday night.

AdvertisementGetty ImagesConsequences

Ten Hag is running a meritocracy. Perform for him and he will stand by you. Fail – and there will be consequences, be it a 13km run in the blistering heat or a spell out of the team.

He is a man who was bold enough to sit Real and France legend, Varane, on the bench for the first two games of the season.

He was then brave enough to drop his captain, Harry Maguire, and another England international in Luke Shaw after back-to-back defeats.

Ronaldo was left out, recalled and then dropped again.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka – at £50million – has barely had a kick.

Statement

Ten Hag is making an important statement by not thrusting Casemiro straight into his starting XI.

McTominay has responded well after a traumatic start to the season.

Since coming on at half time against Brentford, when United were already 4-0 down, he has become a mainstay.

And he is in the team on merit – operating as an impressive foil to Christian Eriksen, with his energy complimenting the Dane’s control.

To drop him as soon as Casemiro walked through the door would have been the wrong message to send to a dressing room that Ten Hag is only in the early days of developing a relationship with.

Getty ImagesDe Jong

Yet the expectation is that Casemiro will become a pivotal part of United’s system. He may not be the midfielder Ten Hag so desperately wanted to sign in the summer – Frenkie de Jong – but the position of No6 was seen as absolutely critical to his plans.

Casemiro was not his first choice – but he was very much in United’s thinking throughout the transfer window, with interest expressed months before the deal was eventually completed and the pursuit of De Jong abandoned.

There are those who believe he more closely fits United’s needs than the Barcelona midfielder as the ball-winner they have lacked.

Ten Hag sees him as pivotal to his system as both a destroyer – but also a link between defence and midfield. There is hope he can develop an understanding with Eriksen to compare to Real’s legendary midfield trio of the Brazilian, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos.