With the daunting task of facing Liverpool tonight, Erik ten Hag has been trying to find solutions for his issues in the middle of the pitch, and one of them has been taking a look at Lisandro Martinez in a defensive midfield role.
Reports suggest that Ten Hag has been doing shape work in training with the Argentine playing in a deeper midfield role and he could line up within the same against Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Manchester United have, of course, secured a more long-term solution to their problems in midfield by agreeing a deal for former Real Madrid star Casemiro. However, the 30-year-old won’t be available for Monday night’s clash, forcing Ten Hag to consider alternative ways in which he can add more steel to his midfield.
Martinez suffered a difficult first half last time out against Brentford and was one of the three players substituted after the break with United 4-0 down. But Ten Hag defended the Argentine when discussing the change this weekend.
''I don't think it was a tough 45 minutes anymore than any other player on the pitch,'' said Ten Hag when quizzed on how the 24-year-old is adapting. ''I saw from his stats he won his aerial duels and his individual challenges. He was always good with his passing and he also made some mistakes as did the whole team. I could have swapped 11 players.''
Ten Hag’s comments suggest he’ll be looking to rely upon Martinez again on Monday, and although he’s predominantly played as a centre-back during his career, the Dutchman has deployed him in a midfield role previously.
It was back at the start of the 2019/20 season in which it first happened, and he did struggle initially, as he told La Nacion back later in 2020: "At the beginning, I felt like going home and crying, the first few weeks were horrible. Different intensity. Different control. Different passes. Different reading of the game. I'm a player who likes to have the ball, but when they played with one or two quick touches, they killed me. It was incredible how off the pace I was.”
The Argentine did soon get up to speed though, and Ten Hag has previously spoken glowingly about his adaption to playing the role. "At the beginning of the season we were looking for a brain for central midfield," Ten Hag said at the time. "We knew Martinez had played in central midfield, but could he do it in Ajax's system? We tried him there and we saw good things.”
In that 2019/20 campaign, Martinez played over 2000 minutes within the Ajax midfield and finished the season with a solid pass success rate of 88.6 per cent.
On top of that, he averaged 1.61 progressive runs and just over four interceptions per 90. For comparison, both Scott McTominay and Fred averaged over five per 90 in the Premier League last season.
An important caveat to note though is Ajax did dominate the ball in most matches that year, meaning time spent defending was much less than it was for United players in the last campaign.
Martinez’s defensive duel success rate of 57.4 per cent bettered both United midfielder regulars last season, which is a good sign. Although his aerial duel success rate of 43.4 should be a concern.
The same is some way below the average posted by each of Fred (50.68 per cent) and McTominay (66.96 per cent), and does play into the narrative that he’s extremely vulnerable in the air due to his size.
There would be some alarm bells if United were looking to rely upon Martinez in this role on a more long-term basis, as there remain unanswered questions about how he will perform from a physical standpoint in this division going forward.
However, in the circumstances Ten Hag currently finds himself in, it’s understandable why he’s hoping Martinez could be the player to help plug a gap against a dangerous opponent on Monday night.
