Jamie Carragher has slammed Erik ten Hag 's decision to play Lisandro Martinez at centre-back, urging the new Manchester United manager to take his £55million signing out of the firing line.
The Liverpool legend has laid bare how Martinez will continue to struggle after being bullied in his first two Premier League games unless Ten Hag admits failure. The 24-year-old shone under the Red Devils boss during their time together as Ajax - but just as United scouts predicated prior to Ten Hag's arrival - Carragher claims that the five-foot nine-inch Martinez simply isn't tall enough to succeed in the the Premier League as part of a four-man defence, having criticised the use of fellow new arrival Christian Eriksen.
"The other problem he's got is the signing of Lisandro Martinez," the Anfield icon began on Monday Night Football. "Now, we should never judge managers or players too early, but I'm convinced this can't work because the size of him playing in a back four. Maybe he could go left-back, maybe he could play in a back three, but in a back four, he cannot play there in the Premier League."
Standing at five-foot nine-inches, the Argentina international is the division's shortest centre-back, and fears over his lack of physicality were realised during the Red Devils' humiliating 4-0 defeat at Brentford on Saturday. Targeted at set pieces and by long balls like he had been the previous week against Brighton, Martinez was left helpless against the likes of Ivan Toney and Ben Mee.
Carragher used statistics to demonstrate and explained: "Brighton are one of the best passing teams you'll see in the Premier League. So against Manchester United, they actually went 20 per cent of their passes long, the highest they've done since August 2021, the start of last season.
"Last season's average was 12 per cent, so they doubled what they were doing because of the size of the Manchester United centre-back. Brentford's manager, Thomas Frank, mentioned what Brighton did after the game. They went from 16 per cent to 21 per cent, again another jump.
Get involved! Will Martinez come good at Man Utd playing centre-back? Join the debate in the comments section.
"And the reason why they're gonna have a huge problem with [Martinez] at centre-back is every single team that play Manchester United - maybe bar Man City and Liverpool, who might feel, 'we don't need to change for Man United' - should target that. And if they don't, they're crackers.
"They really should do that and I think [United] have got a huge problem. And Ten Hag has got his finger prints a little bit over this team, and I think the two or three things he's influenced are not working."
