Jones Knows Notebook: Liability Casemiro in trouble with Liverpool up next

• Casemiro looked a player on the wane vs Everton

• Pass accuracy & dribbled past stats make for grim reading

• It's Liverpool next for Man Utd - time to back corner line

• Read Betfair's new 90 Minute Payout offer here

Did Casemiro have his 'Gary Neville at West Brom' moment?

There is usually a game or a moment in each professional footballers career where they know they are done. When the body sends out clear messages that it can no longer function to the level required.

Gary Neville had his against West Brom in 2011. Recalling the moment he knew he was no longer cut out for the elite level, he said:

"What am I doing out here? How soon will this be over? My mind was racing at a thousand miles an hour, full of doubts and vulnerabilities. So now, at half-time against West Brom, I was staring at the toilet door and all my worst fears were coming true.

"I was making Jerome Thomas look like Ronaldo."

These quotes sprung to my mind when watching Casemiro play for Manchester United in the first half against Everton.

If he was a horse running at Cheltenham, his jockey would have pulled him up at halfway. This wasn't the real Casemiro and at just 32-years-old his time playing at the top-level looks on borrowed time.

Dwight McNeil, cutting in off the left, was running rings around him as Everton found so much space without having the finishers to capitalise.

Casemiro's average of being dribbled past by opposition players now stands at 2.52 per 90 minutes in the Premier League - a whopping figure, which is the third highest of any Premier League player to have played at least 500 minutes. For context, Declan Rice's average stands at 0.64 and Rodri's at 0.91 whilst Virgil van Dijk has been dribbled past just once all season to a per 90 average of 0.08.

It was one of the worst halves of football I've seen a Premier League footballer play for a long time - backed up by some alarming passing statistics.

Casemiro's passing problems

His passing accuracy of 75.71% at Old Trafford on Saturday was the second lowest recorded by any midfielder in a Premier League game this season that attempted 70 or more passes in that game.

Only Oliver Norwood, who somehow conjured up a pathetic 66.76% pass completion for Sheffield United vs Bournemouth in November, ranked worse.

And in that first half, Casemiro's figure was below 70% which isn't surprising for anyone that watched the game as pass after pass went astray often leading to promising Everton breaks. Of his 70 passes in the match, 17 of them resulted in Manchester United losing possession, seven of them coming inside his own half.

Sometimes you can forgive a player for losing possession as perhaps they are trying to make progressive, riskier passes to help create chances. But that's not Casemiro. He is a holding midfielder, tasked with keeping things ticking over steadily.

That 75.71% was Casemiro's lowest passing accuracy of the season, so perhaps it was just a bad day the office? We all have them.

Yet, his overall average of 83.49% in the Premier League is poor when assessing similar types of midfielders at other elite clubs. Of midfielders to have made at least 500 passes this season, he ranks 23^rd in the Premier League for passing accuracy. The likes of Rodri (92%) and Rice (91%) lead the way in that regard.

But despite the shocking statistics that back up the visually worrying displays, this isn't the end it seems for Casemiro.

He hasn't had his West Brom rock bottom moment.

He is still deemed good enough to play in this Manchester United side. And, not only play, but be one of the first names on the teamsheet.

There's no doubting his experience is a massive asset to the dressing room and he provides a big threat from set pieces but in a league where intensity, counter pressing, speed and passing quickly through a press are non-negotiable attributes for all top midfielders, Casemiro is one of many weak links in this flawed United team. Perhaps the weakest.

And who is on the horizon next for Erik ten Hag's men? Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter final on Sunday.

Gulp.

With a one-sided match on the cards at Old Trafford, we must find a way to back Liverpool in some form. Their outright price of 1.9010/11 on the Betfair Exchange is tempting, especially as you'd assume they'll be able to rest key men for Thursday's Europa League second leg with Sparta Prague having won the opening leg 4-1.

But I'm predicting the real value play comes in the corner markets when formed, where yet again we can attack the opposition corner count against United with confident staking.

Regular readers will know all about this sustainable edge we've been exploiting. Manchester United are the best around at shipping corners and the market still hasn't caught up.

United's 10-game Premier League average of corners conceded now stands at 8.3 per 90 minutes after Everton surpassed the market's expected line and won eight at Old Trafford on Saturday.

But that corner-conceded average rises to a completely bonkers 11.5 corners conceded in the last seven games against the top five in the Premier League.

They shipped 10 away at Villa, 13 at home to Spurs, six at home to Villa, 12 away at Liverpool, 12 at home to Man City, 12 at Arsenal and a staggering 15 in the recent league game with Man City - 12 coming in the first half.

Whether it's combing a pro-Liverpool angle with the corner line in the Bet Builder or just simply attacking the Liverpool corner lines when the market is formed, this strategy should lead to profit.

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