Last season, it was a Brazilian midfielder at Liverpool<\/a>. This season, it\u2019s been his international team-mate at Manchester United<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Casemiro<\/a>\u2019s legs have gone,\u201d Jamie Carragher told the Covering Liverpool podcast in October. \u201cI noticed it last season at Anfield and I didn\u2019t like what I saw. It took me back to watching Fabinho<\/a> last year for Liverpool. I want to be the first to say it (about Casemiro). I don\u2019t want to say it when everyone else is saying his legs have gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless of who said what and when, Carragher \u2014 who played for Liverpool until he retired at age 35 \u2014 is not a lone voice in this debate, and Fabinho and Casemiro are far from the only players singled out for seemingly having lead in their boots.<\/p>\n Any footballer over the age of 30 who is struggling for form leaves themselves open to that type of criticism, but in particular if they are now coming off second best in the sort of duels they used to win and playing in a way that makes it look like the game is now a split-second too quick for them.<\/p>\n Casemiro, who turns 32 on Friday, was at risk of straying into that territory against Luton Town yesterday<\/a>. \u201cA serial offender who kept fouling time and time again\u201d, was the way former England midfielder Jamie Redknapp, a pundit on UK broadcaster Sky Sports\u2019 coverage of the match, summarised his display.<\/p>\n Withdrawn at half-time, and fortunate in the eyes of many to have avoided a second yellow card, Casemiro is collecting bookings at quite a rate, even by his standards. He has now been cautioned in eight of his last 11 matches for club and country, and four out of five since returning from almost three months out with a hamstring injury in January.<\/p>\n What is clear is that the spotlight can be unforgiving for older players and, at times, unfair.<\/p>\n Gareth McAuley, who was still playing centre-back in the Premier League<\/a> at the age of 37, viewed the \u201clegs have gone\u201d comment as an \u201ceasy shot\u201d when it was directed at him at West Bromwich Albion<\/a>, especially given how hard he was working to keep in shape and that it was not backed up by the data he was privy to at his club.<\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking, \u2018I\u2019m doing more than people who are 10 years younger\u2019,\u201d the 80-cap Northern Ireland international McAuley tells The Athletic<\/em>. \u201cYou think, \u2018Do you know what? Show some respect\u2019. But it\u2019s getting even younger now: boys at 28 and 29 are being described as \u2018done\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Not every player has reason to feel hard done by in this situation \u2014 in some cases, they are in denial.<\/p>\n One former international midfielder, not long retired from playing, was viewed by his coach as \u2018undroppable\u2019 because of his status. But others at the club felt the player had become a liability as he could no longer track runners and move fast enough.<\/p>\n Some are honest enough to hold their hands up and accept that time has caught up with them \u2013 a reality that can creep up on players during a season or, in the case of Gary Neville, be revealed in one brutal moment.<\/p>\n At West Brom on New Year\u2019s Day in 2011, a 35-year-old Neville made his first start for Manchester United in two months. He describes in his autobiography how he made West Brom winger Jerome Thomas look like Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> during a deeply uncomfortable 71-minute performance in which he was lucky to avoid a red card.<\/p>\n Neville recalled how Mike Phelan, United\u2019s assistant manager at the time, wandered across for a word when the ball rolled out of play close to the dugouts.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re f***ed, aren\u2019t you?\u201d Phelan said.<\/p>\n Neville nodded.<\/p>\n Thomas, who made more than 150 appearances in the Premier League with four different clubs, remembers that game well, and also the comments Neville made later.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess that was how Gary rationalised it because he was on his way out and he didn\u2019t feel he was at his best,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cI don\u2019t want this to come across the wrong way, because Gary Neville is a legend, but what he doesn\u2019t realise is he wasn\u2019t the only person I was doing that to. As a left-winger, I would go into every game with the goal to either get the right-back sent off or subbed.\u201d<\/p>\n Neville would have been dismissed on another day. Instead, he was subbed. The following morning, he told United manager Sir Alex Ferguson that he was retiring. He never played for them again.<\/p>\n Sol Campbell, Neville\u2019s former England<\/a> team-mate, had a different experience before bringing the curtain down on his career.<\/p>\n \u201cMy legs never went. It was just you needed the right rest period,\u201d Campbell, whose last match was as a 36-year-old for Newcastle United<\/a> in the 2010-11 Premier League, tells The Athletic<\/em>. \u201cOnce I went back to Arsenal<\/a> (for a second spell midway through 2009-10), I was 35 and my numbers weren\u2019t there, but getting back to good training helped me compete with the guys. It\u2019s difficult, though, as you get older with the recovery. It\u2019s hard on the body.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you play one game a week it\u2019s great, but sometimes it\u2019s four games in 10 days and that\u2019s when you start to feel it. If you have a sympathetic manager who understands that you\u2019re not 21 anymore, then it\u2019s OK. So, for me, it\u2019s not about \u2018Legs gone\u2019, it\u2019s about recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Casemiro looked off the pace at Luton (Shaun Botterill\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2023\/11\/28073035\/GettyImages-107840476-scaled.jpg\")
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\n Jerome Thomas made Gary Neville realise his career was over (Shaun Botterill\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n