Lisandro Martinez at Manchester United: Is 5’9″ height a problem for the Argentine defender in the Premier League?
Darwin Nunez’s suspension after a red card against Liverpool’s Crystal Palace may have kept Lisandro Martinez from being tested again for his aerial abilities on Monday Night Football but two Premier League rookies share something if not the pitch.
The struggles of both have been seen as evidence of Premier League exceptionalism, the idea that the particularity of the game in England is so distinct that experiences elsewhere are considered superfluous. Nunez has never been this difficult.
A clip of him appearing increasingly confused, brought to the attention of Joachim Andersen, has garnered nearly five million views on Twitter. The Uruguayan was never substituted for Benfica despite facing veteran Pepe in all respects. They say this shows the Premier League is different.
Similar things are being said about Martinez.
The sight of Ben Mee beating him to score Brentford’s third goal confirmed the suspicions. Franco Baresi may be a legend and Fabio Cannavaro won that Ballon d’Or but didn’t they do it in England? This is not a country for little men. How can Martinez cope in an English Premier League that will pit powerful strikers like Nunez or Erling Haaland?
Except that he faced Nunez – twice in the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season. He was part of the Ajax defense that knocked Haaland out in a 4-0 win in the previous round. He’s been around for a while. They can also jump on the continent.
Martinez, aka Lisandro Martinez 5’9″, had a 71% air-to-air success rate in the Eredivisie last season, which is not only impressive but also the best player of any player in that league. It’s not a statistic that ends the debate, but it’s worth mentioning.
The view of those close to Martinez is that he should remain calm. His camp is telling him that this level of scrutiny is normal at Manchester United and fury is to be expected based on the team’s results. Harry Maguire, the United captain, is going through that too.
But there are also disappointments that the debate is being framed around Martinez’s height. After nearly 200 senior appearances and receiving the Rinus Michels award in May as Ajax’s player of the season, here’s an argument the player thinks he’s won.
“In my opinion, it has nothing to do with height,” a source who worked closely with the Ajax defense last season said. “If you’re smart enough, you don’t need height. It’s about individual tactics whether you win a duel or not.”
Take a look back at his first two appearances for Manchester United and it’s remarkable that there are surprisingly few examples of him being beaten in the air. In fact, according to Opta, Martinez has yet to even register for a Premier League aerial duel.
Opta defines a duel that occurs when two players compete for the ball in the air. The only other defenders to have started a Premier League game this season but did not participate in a game are Marc Cucurella and Neco Williams. Neither do the central defenders in the four defenders.
There are two ways to interpret this statistic. Is Martinez shirking responsibility in his role? Or is he trying to figure out how to deal with these situations in a slightly different way? Consider the evidence of those miserable 45 minutes against Brentford…
And that’s it. Martinez was dropped from the first half. Although Ten Hag insisted the decision had nothing to do with adding height to the team and claimed that he could have changed every player on the field, it did add scrutiny to his £57 million signing.
But this is not difficult when Martinez withers. It is arguably less dramatic than the Ivan Toney ordeal that Ben White endured on his Arsenal debut last season – a night in which the English 5’11” defender was able to recover from form. .
Martinez should have been faster to move his foot into position to prevent Mee from jumping in the way of his target. But even against the most direct team still in the Premier League and one of their strongest strikers, the evidence against Martinez is scant.
The Premier League is changing. The number of aerial disputes that the defense has to deal with is decreasing. In fact, the number has been on a downward trend over the past five seasons – significantly over the past two with a total of less than thousands.
Perhaps Ten Hag considered the argument that the Premier League is physically unique and therefore requires a specific skill set but chose to reject that argument on the grounds that the difference is now less pronounced than it is. with them again.
If so, there is evidence to support him.
The concern for Ten Hag – and for Martinez – may be the tactic adopted by Brighton rather than Brentford. Graham Potter’s passing team chose to change their approach on opening weekend because a potential weakness had been identified.
Robert Sanchez, Brighton’s goalkeeper, made 26 of his long passes – 92.9% of them. That’s the highest percentage of his Premier League career and a significant change as he has in total targeted more short passes than long in his 66 appearances.
Brighton’s goals don’t have much to do with long balls. The first stemmed from a Leandro Trossard tackle. The second game saw Brighton build from behind. But if Potter is about to change his approach, it’s something Ten Hag has to get used to.
The key to dealing with that threat will be team cohesion and partnerships on the pitch. There were small signs of the need for that before Brentford. Maguire and Martinez swap places on the long throw, a familiar tactic for many teams.
All components must match.
For example, Jurrien Timber took on an important role for Ajax last season. “Wood covered a lot for Martinez,” said a source who has worked with their defence. “He doesn’t have that anymore. The problem with Martinez is that the players are not aware enough.”
The task will now be on Ten Hag to find the right balance in his backline, one that will allow Martinez’s best qualities to shine through. After all, it was his progressive passing ability that was one of the main reasons United brought him on.
Even in the midst of this bad start, there have been hints of that possibility – and how it causes more problems than it can solve based on the state of the team. There was a clear example of that within 15 seconds of Martinez’s Premier League debut against Brighton.
In that respect, his decision to block the ball with his hand rather than his head right from Brighton’s kick was a smart move. He passed it to Diogo Dalot but the full-back missed for a moment and Trossard was able to fire a long shot that hit the post.
As with his pass to David de Gea in the build-up to Brentford’s second goal, it was the anxiety of others that made Martinez part of the cause. Those are the decisions his coach would encourage. They will be weakened if others cannot handle the ball.
Against Brighton, a sharp pass out of danger in the seventh minute allowed United to build and draw warm applause from the then-hopeful Old Trafford audience. 16 minutes, Adam Lallana had an interesting ball over the head.
Martinez fans can point to a pass accuracy rate of 92.9% so far. The only defenders currently in the Premier League who can play better are Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte. Only Virgil van Dijk has regained possession more times in the third defence this season.
But this Manchester United team is neither Manchester City nor Liverpool. Instead, the latter will be the opponent on Monday Night Football. No Nunez to deal with, just Mohamed Salah and the familiar questions about Martinez’s Premier League credentials.
Not all of them are fair.