Martinez continues to prove doubters wrong as Man United’s key player

After taking the lead early on and salvaging an equaliser against a very strong Arsenal team, Manchester United would have been gutted to come away from the Emirates on Sunday empty handed. 

There has been a lot of positivity surrounding Erik ten Hag’s side this season, especially in recent weeks, where prior to the draw with Crystal Palace and the loss to Arsenal, they had won their previous nine competitive games, including a Carabao Cup quarter-final. That run of form meant that they were technically the only English side still fighting on four fronts.  

While much of the recent praise has gone to Marcus Rashford, having scored five goals in the Premier League, which only Erling Haaland (7) can better since the World Cup, one of the players assigned to preventing goals from going against United deserves adulation, that being Lisandro Martinez. 

When Martinez arrived in the summer, the signing was met with a lot of criticism, much of which came about before he had even touched a ball in the Premier League, namely, to do with his height and if he could cope with the physicality of the division. At 5ft 9in, it was understandable why many would questioned his ability to deal with some of the league’s top strikers such as Haaland, Ivan Toney and Aleksandar Mitrovic, to name three. All aren't afraid to throw their weight around, but Martinez has stood up to the challenge and has delivered as one of his team’s most important players. 

The Red Devils have the fifth best defensive record in the league this season, having only conceded 25 goals in their 20 games so far and much of that has come from the true grit and determination of the player nicknamed ‘The Butcher’. 

Now, while his aerial duel success (59%) has dropped when compared to last season for Ajax in the Eredivisie (70.5%), alluding to those early fears about the Argentine, his overall defensive game has been very good in comparison. 

He boasts a tackle success rate of 86.1%, which among the 151 Premier League players to attempt 25 or more tackles, ranks 20th. But tackling isn’t something that Martinez frequently attempts, averaging only 1.7 tackles per game, with his overall reading of the game something that shines through more and plays a pivotal role in preventing shots at his team’s goal. United, after all, are conceding 12.2 shots per game on average, the ninth lowest in the league. 

In terms of winning possession, he is doing so in the defensive third every 22.8 minutes, which ranks highly among those players to play 1000+ minutes. This is even more notable when you consider United’s average possession is the sixth highest in the league (51.8%), so they have more of the ball in the opposition half. When needs must, Martinez is quick to spring into action to deny attackers. 

But what really stands out is the way he interprets play to cut out potential threats before they can materalise, emphaised by the fact he has only been dribbled past five times in 1389 minutes of league action this season. 

While that figure is impressive in its own right, what is also positive about his play is he is averaging 1.3 interceptions per game, the 28th highest in the league. Seven of his 24 overall have come inside the penalty area, which no player in the league can better this season, including three against Arsenal on Sunday. This shows the sheer determination of a player who is desperate to defend his side’s goal in any given situation, backed by his willingness to chase onto loose balls as well, making 98 ball recoveries, which is level with Arsenal's Gabriel, one of the more seasoned Premier League pros by comparison to Martinez. 

This again is underlined by the 17 shots he has blocked this season, the fifth highest, conveying his desire to close down the opposition and his overall work rate to make that happen, with 3.8 clearances a game a sign that he is a proactive player who likes to quickly deal with any potential threats. What’s most interesting about his 69 clearances is that 55.1% have been headed clearances, which does to some extent disprove that his height would be some sort of disadvantage to his gameplay, as he is effectively using his timing of the jump to deal with opposing team’s threat. 

Though he has only really been deployed in the centre of defence during his short time in England, he is a player who can play in multiple positions including left-back and defensive midfield, which may explain why Arsenal were interested in the former Ajax man before they completed a deal for Oleksandr Zinchenko. This of course makes him a greater asset to Ten Hag, principally because these are areas of the pitch that are so key for a team to break up attacks, whether to stop wingers from causing a threat as a left-back, or, as a defensive midfielder, to stop an attack in its tracks before David De Gea is forced into action. 

Despite defeat on Sunday, he did manage to score his first goal for the club, in which he celebrated enthusiastically in front of the travelling supporters, as the goal highlighted how he also poses a threat from set-pieces. 

While many questioned Martinez to begin with, those questions have been answered, with the World Cup winner quietly going about his business to keep United’s backline solid, maintaining their chances of bringing silverware back to Old Trafford for the first time since 2017.