Manchester United didn’t quite realise what they were losing in Casemiro, with an eye-opening report revealing the catastrophic drop-off in one key area of United’s game since the Brazilian left.

The middle years of Casemiro’s spell in England were underwhelming to say the least, though they were bookended by fantastic campaigns.

The Brazilian icon helped Man Utd win the League Cup in his first season and qualify for the Champions League in his swansong.

Ultimately, the decision was made to part ways via free agency over the summer despite Casemiro enjoying a superb last year at Old Trafford. Casemiro subsequently linked up with fellow south American icons, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, in MLS at Inter Miami.

His exit coincided with a long-anticipated midfield rebuild, though none of the trio that arrived – Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans, Carlos Baleba – have shone so far.

What’s more, none of the new recruits come even remotely close to matching the monumental impact Casemiro made at set pieces.

A report from The Athletic on Friday gave their assessment of Michael Carrick’s doomed reign.

The outlet noted United haven’t adjusted their tactics or approached the game all that differently to how they did last season when results under Carrick were excellent.

However, one major difference this season comes in the near-total drop-off in United’s threat at set pieces, which per the report, is almost entirely down to Casemiro’s exit.

The midfielder regularly scored with his head during his spell in England, and at times, posed an even bigger threat than United’s next best at set pieces, Harry Maguire.

Furthermore, the report worryingly suggested INEOS may not have dug deeply enough into the data when declaring the hierarchy ‘underappreciated’ how vital Casemiro truly was.

Man Utd hopeless at set pieces without Casemiro

The Athletic stated: ‘The major statistical detail that stands out, however, is United completely losing their set-piece threat (down from 98 to nine in this ranking system).

‘The metric is calculated by expected goals (xG) at set pieces plus goals per 100 set pieces, but weighted 70:30 in favour of xG to reward teams who are generating chances from them but aren’t necessarily scoring.

‘A large chunk of United’s drop-off can be traced back to Casemiro. He scored eight goals from set pieces last season – no other player in the squad managed more than two – while he was responsible for around 27 per cent of United’s xG generated from corners.

‘Aged 34 and on wages of around £300,000 per week, Casemiro was destined to leave United under the INEOS regime, but the performance cost of his departure has been underappreciated.

‘He would at times vacate space in the centre of the pitch in search of being effective in the final third, but often his instinct was right, and United have not replaced that roaming, goalscoring presence in any of their three midfield signings.’