With the 32-year-old Casemiro, you always must add the caveats.
He was a fantastic player, appears to have been a fabulous pro, a top team-mate and all-round good guy. The problem is that football must be heartless and the quicker Manchester United can get Manuel Ugarte and his energy into that midfield the better.
Asking 20-year-old debutant Toby Collyer and 19-year-old Kobbie Mainoo to stem that flowing Liverpool tide in the second half at Old Trafford was grotesquely unfair.
The blame for the 3-0 defeat hasn’t been and shouldn’t be laid at their door, especially as United have spent heavily again this summer and still look light in that area.
These are the dangers of not buying well or quickly enough, as well as not moving players on when they are coming close to the end.
We love Christian Eriksen at least as much as we admire Casemiro, and the Dane had a great Euros tournament- but relying on him week in, week out in the Premier League?
It is highly unlikely to be anything other than sporadic cameos after all the courageous 32-year-old has been through.
The game is brutal, but then again, all of us who played know that.
Pat Nevin was writing for the BBC Football Extra Newsletter