Yuvraj Singh
Owen Hargreaves praises Manchester United summer signing Lisandro Martinez
Speaking to Premier League Productions (h/t Manchester Evening News), Owen Hargreaves has lavished praise upon Manchester United star Lisandro Martinez.
The Red Devils have been in impressive form of late and are unbeaten in their last eight games. Under Erik ten Hag, the club is definitely showing signs of progress, which also reflects in our league position with the team just one point off the top four with a game in hand.
One of the main factors behind the excellent form has been a solid defensive structure with the team able to carve the ugly 1-0 wins, which was lacking last season.
United has won by a 1-0 margin on five occasions already this season hence the defence should receive plaudits for the way they have controlled the proceedings, making it challenging for the opposition to score.
One man who has been integral to the defence has been summer signing former Ajax Amsterdam man Martinez who has played the most number of minutes of all first-team defenders. He has definitely improved the defence and added fight to the backline.
Former Manchester United Owen Hargreaves shared a similar opinion on the player and described him as the main of the United defence.
“Erik ten Hag has got Manchester United winning games they would not have won last season.
They are in a good position, defensively they are so much improved. They will be delighted. Lisandro Martinez is the main man in that back four.”
Hargreaves, who made 39 appearances for Manchester United has put ice on the abundant claims made by pundits about Martinez and the fact that he would not be a success in the Premier League due to his short stature.
Nicknamed ‘The Butcher”, Martinez has added a sense of tenacity and steel that we were missing for a long time and his skill set seems to improve the level of the defenders playing around him in Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw.
A left-footed centre-back is very useful in a system which relies on the fullback overlapping to attack and Martinez provides that perfect cover if a team counter-attacks.
He is very comfortable on the ball and playing from the back hence providing the team with another passage to pass into at the same time is exceptionally good with his heading ability giving a proper response to the critics who deemed him not good enough for the league after the first two games.
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The shift in our result and form has been mainly down to a change in the mentality of the players and credit should be given to new signings Martinez and Antony who have brought the fighting mentality and resilience which appears to have rubbed off on the squad.
With an important UEFA Europa League encounter in mid-week and two league games to go before the FIFA World Cup, we need the centre-back to continue his fine form and lead by example to bring home the maximum points.
