Casemiro was then dropped from the squad for the FA Cup final. He was expected to leave that summer, especially if a club from Saudi Arabia came calling. No acceptable offers came in, however, and the Brazilian made a decent start to the following campaign. But it all unravelled again when he made a mistake leading to a goal against Liverpool and was hauled off at half-time by Erik ten Hag for 20-year-old debutant Toby Collyer.
The Brazilian didn't start another league game under Ten Hag for six weeks. Interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy did lean on the veteran heavily in his four games in charge after Ten Hag was sacked, but Ruben Amorim seemed to also write off the player, making him an unused substitute for 12 games in a sequence of 15.
Casemiro returned to the team against Tottenham, but only after an injury crisis afflicted Kobbie Mainoo and Collyer. And the coach gave a typically honest but brutal assessment of the player when speaking to TNT Sports Mexico around that time. He said: "We understand that Casemiro has other things nowadays. The intelligence he has, understanding the game, understanding where the ball is going to fall but we’re in a league that I can see, even in European competitions, the difference in intensity is big. And so, I feel that this team also needs players with a very high intensity."