Chris Sutton has blasted Erik ten Hag for hauling off three Manchester United players after just 45 minutes at the weekend - including £55million new boy Lisandro Martinez.
A first-half collapse saw United slump to a shock 4-0 defeat against Brentford courtesy of goals from Josh DaSilva, Mathias Jensen, Ben Mee and Bryan Mbuemo. Unsurprisingly, Ten Hag took action at the break, with Martinez, Luke Shaw and Fred all hooked at half-time.
But Sutton has hit out at Ten Hag for subjecting that trio to the "ultimate humilation" - and he's warned the Dutchman that teams will continue to target Martinez after the 5ft 9in centre-half was bullied by Mbuemo and Ivan Toney.
Sutton told Mail Plus: "Martinez was one of three men hooked at half-time by Erik ten Hag on Saturday – the ultimate humiliation for a footballer – and it's been a rough welcome to the Premier League for him. After seeing Martinez dominated individually, other strikers will be targeting him now. I know I would.
"Brighton did it last weekend, abandoning their usual plan of playing out from the back to send long balls towards Martinez. Brentford saw that and targeted him, too, feeling it was a weak link they could expose. It's smart. It's streetwise. You'll take advantage of your opponents any way you can.
"Like how Brentford striker Ivan Toney targeted Ben White at the start of last season on his Arsenal debut. Toney beat up White in that 2-0 win. If you feel you can get the better of someone, why wouldn’t you use that?"
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United chased Martinez, who starred for Ajax under Ten Hag last year, for months before they finally struck an agreement with the Dutch giants to bring the Argentina star to Old Trafford.
But United icon Gary Neville has also expressed concerns over Martinez's ability to cope with the physicality of the Premier League in a back four following United's drubbing. He told Sky Sports: "Maybe on the left in a back three – that could potentially work.
"Maybe playing in midfield, because we know he can do that. I think he's got tenacity and, to be fair, I wouldn't judge him at all at this moment in time. But to say he could play in a back four away at Brentford against [Ivan] Toney and [Bryan] Mbeumo – he physically can't compete with them.
"I couldn't when I was playing as a centre-back when I was younger, and I thought I was a decent centre-back who knew my position and knew the game. But I couldn't do it because Gary Pallister had to keep coming over to swap with me.
"When I saw him [Martinez] swapping with Maguire in the first half at the long throws, it reminded me of Pally who used to swap with me.
"If you're having to swap positions at centre-back to compensate for the other one it's just not great and that's what continually happened. They did target him in that first half."
