Erik ten Hag explains whether Man United will appeal Casemiro’s red card vs Crystal Palace

Casemiro was shown a straight red card midway through the second half of Manchester United’s 2-1 victory against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.

The Premier League clash was going smoothly for Erik ten Hag’s men – who were two goals to the good – before a team-wide brawl took place after Antony was pushed into the advertising boards.

United’s Brazilian midfielder was involved, holding Palace midfielder Will Hughes at his neck, and then dismissed after Andre Marriner was advised by VAR to look at the monitor.

There has been much controversy about the decision, however. Alternative angles of the situation show Casemiro showing minimal force and instead grappling onto the shirt collar of Hughes, as he looked to ensure he did not involve himself in the on-pitch fighting.

United’s no.19 even had a hug with his English opponent afterwards and the pair shared a laugh together.

“Casemiro is protecting our player and also protecting the player who wants to attack,” Ten Hag told reporters. “He was holding him back, he was protecting him and didn’t want to hurt the player.”

It was even picked up on that Jordan Ayew also had his arm around Fred’s throat when the fallout was occurring, in a much more aggressive manner than Casemiro too. His incident was not looked at, which frustrated Ten Hag.

“You said it,” replied the United manager when asked if Ayew deserved to be sent off considering Casemiro was.

“My interpretation is the same but you see the same things. When Casemiro is sent off in this incident, many more players need to be sent off.”

Casemiro will miss both of the league fixtures against Leeds, as well as facing Leicester City at Old Trafford.

It is clear that Ten Hag and the United fanbase feel the red card was either unjustified or that further action should’ve been taken on other players too.

However, the Dutch coach was reluctant to say whether the club would take action and appeal the decision.

A successful appeal would mean that Casemiro would be available for those three games previously mentioned. Yet, if United were unsuccessful, he would miss the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle as the ban would be extended by one further match.

It seems too big a risk for a situation that does not look good at all when slowed down and frozen with the cameras used to spot incidents like this.

When asked about the possibility of an appeal, Ten Hag said: “We have to think about it but also when you freeze it, then Casemiro is crossing the line. But many more players were crossing the line.”