By Harry Smith
Ever since Manchester United announced the signing of Lisandro Martinez from Ajax for almost €58 million, every single media outlet in England started questioning if this was the right player for the Red Devils since he isn’t that tall for a centre-half. With his 1.75m of height, a lot of football personalities made fun of him before watching him in action.
Erik ten Hag knew Martinez was the player he wanted to reinforce his defense ever since he was appointed as Manchester United manager back in April while he was still in charge of Ajax. The Dutchman had been working with the Argentinian since 2019 at the Amsterdam club, where he discovered he had a gem on his hands at centre-back.
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The former Ajax manager convinced Lisandro to come with him in this new chapter in their careers at Old Trafford, but things didn’t start as they expected. After losing the first two games, the media started to question the 24-year-old defender because, in both defeats, the rivals were targetting him in crosses due to his height.
Erik ten Hag didn’t listen to critics and stuck with him at the back. Now, Manchester United have won their last two fixtures against Liverpool and Southampton with Lisandro Martinez being named Man Of The Match in both games. The former Ajax defender has found his ideal pairing in Raphael Varane and both have benched the team’s captain Harry Maguire.
Ever since this season’s Premier League started, no one has won a higher percentage of aerial duels than Lisandro Martinez. The Argentina centre-back has won 83% of his aerial duels, more than Kalidou Koulibaly (75%), William Saliba (57%), Joe Gomez (56%), and Ruben Dias (36%), even though all of them are taller than Martinez, as per Statman Dave from Sky Sports and BBC.
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