Real Madrid play with 4-3-3 line up and when Casemiro plays, he plays in defensive midfielder position. Sometimes he closes to defense line and be the extra stopper. He does that only if one of the defenders has to shift from his regular position. So for Casemiro to take position in defense line, firstly one of the defenders has to move from his regular position or needs some help. And because defenders know that Casemiro can help them, they can go forward or shift to a different direction comfortably. Casemiro gives them extra freedom.
For example, if the left stopper shifts a little bit left to cover the opponent’s player, Casemiro comes to defense line and takes position between two stoppers. With that positioning, left stopper can cover the opponent’s player, who is in left, comfortably and the distance between right stopper and left stopper isn’t too much. Because now Cassemiro is a stopper too.
If the opponent tries to use wing and when the ball goes to wing, if Casemiro sees a space in defense line and shifts to the defense line, there could be a problem for defenders about seeing Casemiro and taking position according to Casemiro. Because to accord their positions with Casemiro’s new position, they have to be able to see Casemiro.
With a match situation, we can understand better. In this situation, Atletico Madrid try to make game against Real Madrid. Atletico Madrid attack with like a 3-2-5. Centre stopper Kondogbia has the ball. Casemiro takes position in midfield’s behind.
Kondogbia passes to right back Llorente who is in right wing. When Llorente takes the ball, the opponent’s right winger Correa is in right half-space. Because Correa is in right half-space, Real Madrid’s left back Mendy doesn’t go to cover Llorente and left stopper Alaba shifts to left half-space a little bit. So the opponent’s right centre forward Cunha runs to Alaba’s behind. Casemiro sees Cunha’s run and shifts to defense line to cover him. So Llorente can’t pass to forward and he passes back.
In this situation, Mendy and Alaba couldn’t see Casemiro’s movement to defense. Because Casemiro moved from their back. So Casemiro was out of their visual angle. This time, Mendy didn’t close to Llorente when Llorente took the ball and Alaba didn’t take position close enough to Correa.
In a different position, Real Madrid’s defense line could accord their positions with Casemiro’s new position. In this situation, Real Madrid try to make game. Right back Carvajal has the ball but he will lose the ball after few seconds. As you see, Casemiro takes position closer to this area and defense line.
After Carvajal lost the ball, as you see, Casemiro immediately closed to the opponent’s right centre forward. Right stopper Militao can glance Casemiro.
Then Militao closes to the opponent’s left centre forward and Casemiro becomes the 3rd stopper. Militao doesn’t have to worry about closing to wing because he knows, Casemiro is in his back and covers the other centre forward. Because as I said before, Militao could see Casemiro. Alaba and Mendy don’t worry about closing to right quickly either because they can see Casemiro’s movement too. So they protect their positions. Then Real Madrid players take the ball back quickly with these positionings.
For Casemiro to take position like this, the opponent has to threaten both stoppers directly with two players and also there shouldn’t be another free player in centre. For example, if the opponent plays with 3-5-2, because if Casemiro moves to defense line to support defenders, the opponent will have 1 more player in centre, Casemiro doesn’t move to defense line and firstly covers centre midfield.
But against Atletico Madrid’s 4-4-2, because Atletico Madrid have 2 centre midfielders, when Real Madrid’s 2 centre midfielders match with them, Casemiro could support defenders because there wasn’t any more central threat from midfield.
But of course, opponents can benefit from Casemiro’s positioning and find free space. If two forward players threaten directly the defense line and Casemiro closes to defense line to be the 3rd stopper, after these movements, if the opponent’s one player takes position in between midfield and forward lines, he will be completely free.
Now let’s look at this previous situation from a different angle. When Kondogbia tries to pass to Llorente, as you see, in midfield, Real Madrid’s two midfielders match with Atletico Madrid’s two midfielders. The opponent’s left centre forward Felix takes position in between forward and midfield lines and Casemiro takes position in midfield’s back. Casemiro and Felix don’t match with each other.
Then Llorente takes the ball. When Cunha starts his run to defense line’s back, Casemiro starts to move defense line. And then Felix starts to go forward diagonally. Casemiro can’t see Felix’s move because when the ball was going to Llorente, Casemiro’s attention turned to left and the opponent’s right centre forward Cunha’s run to defense line’s back. So Felix was out of his visual angle and he focused on different things. If before the ball started to go to Llorente, Felix would start his diagonal move, Casemiro could close to Felix and cover him. Because this time automatically Felix would be closer to Casemiro and as I said before, because if there is another free player in midfield, Casemiro’s first role is covering this player, Casemiro would close to Felix and cover him.
After Casemiro went to defense line and helped Alaba and Mendy to cover the opponent’s right winger and right centre forward, as you see, Felix is absolutely free in between forward and midfield lines. Also now he is closer to Llorente too. With diagonal movement, he went forward and also changed his direction to a more central space. Llorente doesn’t pass to Felix and passes back to defense but Felix’s movement was so productive to benefit from Casemiro’s positioning.
