Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez is living up to Nemanja Vidic's high expectations as a centre-back by giving "150 per cent" in every tackle the Argentinian makes.
Martinez was brought into his national side's starting line-up for their vital clash against Mexico on Saturday, after he was left on the bench for the first hour of Argentina's shock 2-1 defeat by Saudi Arabia. Lionel Scaloni's side knew that a defeat to their North American opposition would have seen them crash out at the group phase after just two games.
Lionel Messi produced yet another moment of magic to put those fears to bed, as he scored a sublime goal in the 64th minute. The Paris Saint-Germain star took a touch to control a pass with his left foot before drilling the ball into the bottom corner from 20 yards out past a helpless Guillermo Ochoa in goal for Mexico.
Enzo Fernandez then sealed the points for his country as he curled in a superb second with just three minutes to play.
Despite the vast array of attacking talent on display, Martinez stood out with a dominant performance at the back. The United defender played a key role in helping his country keep a clean sheet, as he put his body on the line for the cause.
This was typified when the United man was caught in the face by Hirving Lozano's high boot, yet the 24-year-old refused to pull out of the header, as he powerfully cleared the ball to safety. This is something that Vidic would have been incredibly impressed by, as he opened up on his attitude towards defending during an interview with The Times back in 2017.
He said: “You can fix your nose, but if you let somebody score the goal your pride cannot be fixed. If you looked closely on the pitch you’d have seen others were bigger than me, but I understood this: that if I was going to win a challenge I had to go 150%: not 80%, not 90%, 150%. That’s mental strength: ‘I don’t like to do it but I have to do it’.”
Martinez has also shown his ability with the ball at his feet with some progressive passing under Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford, another trait that the Serbian highly values.
"The game is changing, [Coaches] now want defenders to do both. To play . . . take the ball out from the back and be a midfield player, and at the same time be a defender. It’s not easy to do both, because you have to switch your mentality: ‘OK, now I’m driving with the ball, now I’m going to create something’ to ‘OK, now I’m going to be the fighter’.”
Martinez has already won the hearts of United fans with the passion he displays on the pitch Should he continue in a similar fashion, it may not be too much longer before Vidic and the Argentine are mentioned in the same breath.
Patrick----417
56
✒️ At some point in the match, I noticed that Argentine number 10, who is no more at all comparable to the comic speedstar Barry Allen aka Flash, collecting ball from Lisandro and Otamendi just behind the center circle. This is the region what you call a zone 8 and zone 11. Usually center midfielders like Toni Kroos or Thiago, even modern deep lying playmakers like De Jong operates from here. Definitely it's not a crime for a number 10 to operate in Zone 8, that's not my point. My point is that, it is not what Lionel Andres Messi is detailed to do in this squad. That's an extra burden for a player who is playing as a supporting striker in a flat 4-4-2 formation. Atleast 2 person marking him all the time when its a low block opponent, with the ball he has suddenly 4 markers, and most of his teammates are not quite sure when to leave him the ball and where to position themselves. This is just like 2018 World cup, Lionel Messi is going through a tremendous workload of collecting the ball from back, trying to provide for his teammates, and finally go for a magical moment to settle the match. All alone. Let's go back to the basic of football notebook. Over the decades football evolved like every any other system naturally. There is a huge differences in tactics in last to last decade, last decade and running decade. That's why in 2006 England had the audacity to play with Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham and Joe Cole in a same flat 4 without an anchor. You will never see such kind of tactics in 2022. Every player has separate role and task. If I have 2 player for controlling the tempo of the game, and I have more 2 of them who are equally good waiting at the bench - I don't need them, I need two anchors now. Similarly if I have someone to shield my defence, and anchor my midfield, I do not need any more anchors no matter how great they are. I need distributors and creators now. Football is not names now, football is roles. Over the past years, Since Riquelme's departure, Argentina always felt the necessity of a proper distributing midfielder who would collect the ball from deep, and spray it amongst the other midfielders and forwards. They tried Veron in 2010. We have seen Banega, Biglia , even Pastore was considered as a future prospect, but no one actually clicked like they wanted it. Except of course, Ever Banega. Ever Banega will always be the regret of Argentina for last decade. Only if he was that consistent. It's not a rocket science that Lo Celso was a big big relief for the argentine fans. With Lo Celso, they exactly got what they wanted. Giovanni Lo Celso and De Paul, they compliment each other. With De Paul beside, Giovanni is a much more confident passer, consistent linkman for the forwards. Vice Versa, De Paul can bring the energy to the Midfield at the fullest when he doesn't have the responsibility to ensure supply for the front three or four. On top of the that, with these two around, Leandro Paredes does not seem like a mediocre midfielder, he really gets the time and chance to see the angles and gap for his accurate long balls and diagonals. Now this is very clear from the opening two match of Argentina, Lo Celso's absence affected the team chemistry a lot. De Paul is over tasked with additional duties of ball carrying and link ups, his energetic presence is less prominent in midfield and hence Paredes is struggling to concentrate on playmaking from deep. As a result the forwards have to drop deep to get in touch. Messi himself dropped parallel to the holding midfielders at some point to ensure uninterrupted flow of passing and connecting the forwards with the Midfielders. What an absolute waste of energy and ability. Moreover, Argentina tried to pull off a flat 4-4-2 seemingly. (and on paper too as well). The other 3 midfielders was so pathetic, Di Maria had to switch wing and cover both wing for like 10-12 times in a same match. You have to understand that Di Maria is not a 25 years old young winger anymore, although he's quite intelligent, he has a good football calculation and he always delivers when it is most required. And only Angel has the chemistry with Leo Messi when Argentina is with the ball. But if he is overtasked in such ways that he has to switch wings 10 times in a match, you're just forcing one of your best players to fatigue without utilizing half of his potential. Di Maria's best output was in 2014 World Cup and 2013-14 UCL, in both competition he was used as a 3rd center midfielder at the left side of a diamond midfield , known as a "carrilero". Correct me if I am wrong, I don't know if it was an instruction from coach, Argentine wide players were constantly trying to play crosses in box for numerous time. Be it Maria or Acuna. Like for whom? Martinez? Are you even serious? Do they have Giroud in their team? You can not just rely on cross, when all of your forwards are 5'7". Usually team Argentina hugely rely on forward passes and through balls from deep, these backfired against Saudi Arabian High line defence. But that doesn't mean that you're going to play like Real Madrid used to play with Cristiano Ronaldo up front with striker like Lautaro Martinez. Here comes the Plan B from the coach. A great coach always have Plan B and Plan C when Plan A is impossible to execute. I am not a regular follower of Scaloni, but I'll be eager to see what he does in the next match with his limited 'effective' resources. Prime issue of the team is to distribute the workload equally. Lionel Messi can have the playmaking forward's role like many other forwards (Benzema, Kane etc), but he must not be forced into a situation where he needs to drop back to Zone 8 to collect ball. Hence, Paredes should be in the squad always no matter how his performance was against Saudi. Now, to unlock Leandro Paredes (CDM) , you need to give him space and time. De Paul (RCM), if centrally positioned with an additional midfielder (LCM), will do the trick. But ofcourse not in a flat 4-4-2. You need to have a diamond (442 diamond/4-3-1-2) shape to accommodate all three midfielder I mentioned. Finally, the fourth midfielder (CAM) of the Midfield Quartret should be either Di Maria, Messi or ofcourse, Paulo Dybala if he is fully fit. If the additional midfielder (LCM) is Di Maria, who can play this role pretty well, the CAM is going to be Messi (or Dybala in some cases) - you can put Martinez and Alvarez up front or try some permutation and combinations with Messi/Dybala/Martinez/Alvarez in some situations. Other way round, if the LCM is Enzo Fernández (or MacAllister, I'd prefer Enzo over Mac) , Di Maria has a free role behind the front two- which will allow the formation to switch from a 4-3-1-2 to 4-3-3 from time to time with Messi and Maria in both wings. Lisandro proved his worth yesterday. He should be a fixed center back from now on with Otamendi. Only if we face teams like France who has a 6'3" target man like Giroud, I would want both of Otamendi - Romero and Lisandro together, no matter Lisandro plays as a DM or a 3rd center back. Without Major tactical changes, this Argentina team is not destined for anything great, unless Lionel Messi decides to be “Diego Maradona: Mexico 1986 version” for an entire worldcup. As an Argentina fan that would be a treat for eyes. Vamos 🇦🇷
Titi14
22
he is ready to die for the team..what a man what a player.
bbbbbbba
15
SORRY guys not related but who remembers when Ronaldo scored from outside the box..🤷🤷 Just asking 😁😁
kg-4991
12
Butcher of Old Trafford 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥