Martínez excels: “By far the best at United this season”

Lisandro Martínez continues to impress at Manchester United. The Argentine defender is a regular in Erik ten Hag’s squad and was again of huge importance in Sunday night’s difficult win over West Ham United (1-0). SkySports analysts Owen Hargreaves and Ian Wright had praise for the development at United and especially for Martínez after the Premier League game.

“Ten Hag has created a United that wins games,” began former United midfielder Hargreaves. “They probably would have lost this one last season. Manchester United are not scoring many goals, but they have improved tremendously defensively.” United is also more stable in midfield at the moment. “With Casemiro as a base player, they haven’t lost in the league yet,” Hargreaves noted.

Martínez gets the Englishman’s biggest compliments. “He leads the defence. He plays with a lot of personality. The Ten Hag revolution is coming, the revolution is on its way. I think they are better at this stage of the season than we thought beforehand.” Wright also joins his colleague’s praise. “This guy has added defensive quality that I haven’t seen at Manchester United for a long time. Not only in his positioning, but also the passes he sends out. That’s exactly what they need. Someone with no frills, who executes tackles. A really good purchase. I didn’t think he would be that good.”

Insane statistics

The analysts backed up their praise by analysing Martínez’s performance against West Ham. The Argentine defender won seven of eight duels, had an accuracy in his passing of no less than 92% and was responsible for three interceptions. SkySports analyst Gary Neville was also positive about Martínez. “In large parts of the match he was really fantastic. He is by far Manchester United’s best player this season,” Neville said.