EPL Legend Gives Brutal Assessment Of United’s €65m Signing After Brentford Hammering

Premier League and Liverpool FC Legend, Jammie Carragher has given a brutal assessment of Manchester United’s €65 million (£55.5million) defensive signing, Lisandro Martinez shortly after the Red Devils were thrashed 0-4 at home to Brentford last weekend.

According to Carragher, Martinez will continue to struggle if Erik Ten Hag continues to play him as a Center-Back, insisting that the former Ajax player will be bullied by taller forwards in the Premier League.

Standing at a meager 5 foot-nine-inches, the former England international believes that Martinez cannot survive being in a defensive pairing on a back four set-up.

“The other problem he’s got is the signing of Lisandro Martinez,” Carragher said on Monday Night Football. “Now, we should never judge managers or players too early, but I’m convinced this can’t work because the size of him playing in a back four. Maybe he could go left-back, maybe he could play in a back three, but in a back four, he cannot play there in the Premier League.”

Going further, the Anfield legend believes that just like against Brighton and Brentford, Martinez will continue to be the target of long balls and crosses in United’s defensive half, a situation the 24-year-old can’t deal with due to his lack ot height.

“Brighton are one of the best passing teams you’ll see in the Premier League. So against Manchester United, they actually went 20 per cent of their passes long, the highest they’ve done since August 2021, the start of last season.

“Last season’s average was 12 per cent, so they doubled what they were doing because of the size of the Manchester United centre-back. Brentford’s manager, Thomas Frank, mentioned what Brighton did after the game. They went from 16 per cent to 21 percent, again another jump.

“And the reason why they’re gonna have a huge problem with [Martinez] at centre-back is every single team that play Manchester United – maybe bar Man City and Liverpool, who might feel, ‘we don’t need to change for Man United’ – should target that. And if they don’t, they’re crackers.

“They really should do that and I think [United] have got a huge problem. And Ten Hag has got his finger prints a little bit over this team, and I think the two or three things he’s influenced are not working.”

Carragher went on to urge Ten Hag to protect Martinez by taking him out of the CB pairing or else, the team will continue to concede needless goals from long balls and whipped-in crosses.

“And the reason why they’re gonna have a huge problem with [Martinez] at centre-back is every single team that play Manchester United – maybe bar Man City and Liverpool, who might feel, ‘we don’t need to change for Man United’ – should target that. And if they don’t, they’re crackers.

“They really should do that and I think [United] have got a huge problem. And Ten Hag has got his finger prints a little bit over this team, and I think the two or three things he’s influenced are not working.”

“And the reason why they’re gonna have a huge problem with [Martinez] at centre-back is every single team that play Manchester United – maybe bar Man City and Liverpool, who might feel, ‘we don’t need to change for Man United’ – should target that. And if they don’t, they’re crackers.

“They really should do that and I think [United] have got a huge problem. And Ten Hag has got his finger prints a little bit over this team, and I think the two or three things he’s influenced are not working.”

“And the reason why they’re gonna have a huge problem with [Martinez] at centre-back is every single team that play Manchester United – maybe bar Man City and Liverpool, who might feel, ‘we don’t need to change for Man United’ – should target that. And if they don’t, they’re crackers.

“They really should do that and I think [United] have got a huge problem. And Ten Hag has got his finger prints a little bit over this team, and I think the two or three things he’s influenced are not working.”

“And the reason why they’re gonna have a huge problem with [Martinez] at centre-back is every single team that play Manchester United – maybe bar Man City and Liverpool, who might feel, ‘we don’t need to change for Man United’ – should target that. And if they don’t, they’re crackers.

“They really should do that and I think [United] have got a huge problem. And Ten Hag has got his finger prints a little bit over this team, and I think the two or three things he’s influenced are not working.”

“And the reason why they’re gonna have a huge problem with [Martinez] at centre-back is every single team that play Manchester United – maybe bar Man City and Liverpool, who might feel, ‘we don’t need to change for Man United’ – should target that. And if they don’t, they’re crackers.

“They really should do that and I think [United] have got a huge problem. And Ten Hag has got his finger prints a little bit over this team, and I think the two or three things he’s influenced are not working.”