Jamie Carragher stands by claim that Lisandro Martinez is too small

Jamie Carragher remains unconvinced by Man United defender Lisandro Martinez - claiming he would not want a 5ft 9in defender on his team.

The Argentine centre-back joined Old Trafford in a £55million deal this summer from Ajax and had a shaky first two games as United were beaten by Brighton and Brentford - though he improved in his next four after Ten Hag dropped Harry Maguire and paired Martinez with Raphael Varane.

Martinez's return to form was brought up by Gary Neville at his latest episode of The Overlap, co-hosted by his fellow pundit Carragher, who insists he would be reluctant to play against someone of his height.

The Liverpool legend was scathing of Martinez after he was left exposed in United's 4-0 away loss to Brentford and said his move to United 'can't work' after both Brighton and the Bees played balls of the top of him.

Speaking on the YouTube show, Neville said to Carragher: 'Have you changed your mind on Martinez, by the way?'

'No,' Carragher responded. 'I think he's a good player. I wouldn't want a centre-back who was 5ft 9in in my team. I would not.'

After Neville pressed him on his view that the deal 'couldn't work', Carragher hit back and accused his colleague of getting 'carried away' about his form so early into the season, claiming that had Martin Odegaard not missed against United for Arsenal then the player would be getting criticised again.

'We'll see, he added. We've had four games [of Martinez being in form]. You're getting carried away. If Odegaard scores the opening goal then you'll be saying he made a mistake. But for a defender to be five foot nine and play, never mind in the Premier League, at any level of football, he's got to be a good player. Because that is not normal.

'His passing is very good, he looks aggressive. He looks like a leader. He's not a bad player, but to play at that level of football at five foot nine - I wouldn't want to play alongside someone who was five foot nine as a centre-back.

'Think of the best centre-backs to ever play. Bobby Moore, wins the World Cup. Franco Baresi, I would say he's the best centre-back to every play, in my eyes.

'I didn't see Bobby Moore play but Baresi was lightening quick, amazing on the ball, he organised the whole defence and he was still five foot nine, five foot ten.

'So for Martinez to play at this level, he's obviously a good player. He has to be, because of his height. But at times, that will cost him. But if he is nine out of ten at everything else, it will compensate for being five foot nine. Because at times, if you are that height, you will get exposed as we saw in the first two games.

'I wasn't the biggest centre-back and I found it more difficult playing against a Kevin Davies, Bobby Zamora, Carlton Cole, rather than playing against a United or Chelsea or City. Because those games were more about reading the game.'

Carragher first set out his issues with Martinez after United's humbling by Brentford last month, saying Ten Hag had a real problem on his hands after signing the league's smallest centre-back and even claimed he might have to shift him to left-back.

'The other problem he's got is the signing of Lisandro Martinez.

'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.

'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.

'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.'