Lisandro Martínez - The Ultimate Team Player for Erik ten Hag's Manchester United

Born in Gualeguay, Argentina, Lisandro Martínez started his senior career at Newell's Old Boys, and moved to Amsterdam in 2019. In his first season at Ajax, which came under current Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag (more on this later), Lisandro alternated between playing as a defensive midfielder as well as a centre-back. As his career has progressed, during which he even played as a left-back, Martínez has settled into his role as the left sided centre-back alongside Dutch wonderkid Jurrien Timber in the heart of Ajax's defence.

Nicknamed 'The Butcher of Amsterdam', Martínez is very much like any South American defender one would imagine - aggressive and tenacious, yet possessing the technical qualities that caught the attention of the scouts at the Amsterdam club. His excellent 2021/22 season saw him win Ajax's Player of the Year, and now the Argentine is being chased by a host of clubs around Europe.

So how good is Lisandro Martínez? In this article, I will outline his strengths, tendencies and his weaknesses.

Ball Playing Centre-Back

Almost every top-tier team now requires a ball-playing centre-back who can aid the build-up and progression phases of play. What's even rarer, is finding left-footed players who can fulfill that role to a high level - and those two qualities are what Martínez combines extremely well.

Adept at both passing as well as carrying the ball out of defence, Martínez can fit into any team due to his abilities. Here is a viz that shows off those two specific qualities of his:

As we can see, Martínez uses his ball-carrying ability to break the first line of pressure from the opponents and then uses his passing ability to progress the ball into the final third.

By stats, he is one of the best centre-backs across Europe when it comes to the expected threat generated from passes and carries. This is not something that is just stat-based, even by watching Martínez one can attest to these statements. Here are a few clips showing his passing prowess:

And here is one that shows him evading pressure with the ball at his feet:

Upon watching these, one can also imagine why he spent time playing as a defensive midfielder, as these skills translate quite well to that position.

However, there seems to be a growing trend in the 'Football Twitter' community that we talk about a defender's ball progression statistics because his actual defending isn't good enough. While this is a bizarre statement to make for most players, I want to ensure that Martínez isn't being thought of in that way. So let's take a look at his defending next.

Defensive Ability

Lisandro Martínez is a really good defender - quite simple. His baseline quality of engaging in duels, covering space, and scanning for players around him despite being in tight situations make him a very difficult opponent to deal with. He's always aware of where opposition players are and despite having an aggressive style of defending, is actually very measured in knowing when to commit to challenges.

Let's take a look at this clip, for example:

Martínez immediately recognizes that if the attacker is allowed to receive and turn, he will have a lot of space to drive into and will be face to face with Ajax's defence. Hence the Argentine jumps out of his position to make sure the attacker cannot comfortably turn with the ball and also makes a good tackle, further allowing Ajax to settle down.

Here, Martínez is against a formidable foe in Darwin Nunez. The ball is played into the channel behind the left-back, and it is in a fairly safe zone for Ajax to defend. It would be common for centre-backs to be overly aggressive in this situation and try to challenge Nunez in order to win the ball back. However, Martínez has the patience to delay Nunez and he then uses his body to win the duel and shield the ball against an extremely physical opponent to help Ajax keep possession. This is really good defending from the Argentine.

This is an example of him having to defend a lot of space against Nunez. The (new) Liverpool forward is driving with the ball with a teammate ready to receive a pass or a cross from him in the centre. Martinez, instead of diving into a challenge immaturely or just letting Nunez drive past him, goes shoulder-to-shoulder with the Uruguayan and runs into his path. This turns out to be an optimal decision as the referee sees this as a fair tackle and does not blow the whistle for a foul. Even if in a slightly unfortunate scenario where a foul is called against him, it is still seen as a 'competitive enough' tackle and would not result in him being yellow carded for the challenge.

These are a few examples of him dealing with an equally tough, aggressive, and clever attacker, where Martínez manages to come out on top.

At 5'10'', Martínez is fairly short when it comes to centre-backs. Even then, he does fairly well when it comes to engaging in aerial duals against opponents.

In this example, Martínez reads the flight of the ball well and holds off engaging in a duel with Nunez, whilst making it known to him that he's standing behind him, ready to challenge. This creates doubt in the mind of the Liverpool forward and when he fails to connect, Martínez heads the ball away. His ability to not be overly and unnecessarily aggressive is a big plus to his team.

When he does have the run-in on an opposition player, he can challenge quite aggressively for the duel. He is slightly lucky here as this situation can lead to a foul, but it is good to see that he can be fairly aggressive when needed.

Here he recognizes that he will be beaten in the air if he goes for the duel as the attacker has taken up a good position in front of him, so Martínez just leans into the attacker to unbalance him which effectively allows him to win the challenge. He does this frequently, especially against bigger attackers, and while 

this can be given as a foul sometimes, as pure defending, and to do that in the area of the pitch Martínez does, is still a good defensive action.

To sum up this section, Martínez has really good defensive instincts and despite being aggressive, he is not overly aggressive. He waits and delays making a challenge until it is optimal to do so, uses his body well, and understands how to compensate for his lack of physical size against stronger and taller attackers.

Composure and Technique

While a centre-back usually has a lot of space to operate in, a defensive midfielder does not. And knowing that Martínez has played in midfield before should tell you that he is also quite good on the ball and does not panic when put under pressure:

In all these clips, despite being double-teamed, Martínez shows great composure to keep possession. This is invaluable to both the coaches - Mikel Arteta and Erik ten Hag - who seem to be pushing the hardest for the Ajax defender. Again, this is something that translates extremely well to the defensive midfield role.

Here, he is controlling a slightly difficult pass under pressure but manages to calmly get away from the opposition player and play a pass into a very good area. Having the physical strength, technique, and composure that Martínez has means he is an extremely reliable player both in and out of possession and has the ability to be a lynchpin for his side.

Lisandro's Weakness

When you're a 5'10'' player, you're always going to struggle against certain opponents. Despite his anticipation and technique while engaging in aerial battles (as we saw earlier),  Martínez still does struggle against strong, physical and tall opponents.

These two clips sum up this point perfectly - Martínez is up against a tall striker who tries to flick the ball on for his teammates who will look to run in behind Ajax's high line. These situations are very common in the Premier League, and players like Calvert-Lewin and Antonio are particularly notorious when it comes to exploiting such actions. If he does gamble on such challenges and the attacker is able to get there first and nod it into the path of his wingers/midfielders, it can put Martínez's team in danger.

Martínez will either have to avoid engaging in such duels (which would allow the attacker to maybe control the ball and find his teammates anyway) or time his duels almost without a fault - something that cannot be done every single time.

His strategy to deal with such attackers by leaning into them from behind and giving them a nudge can also be costly for his team, as such challenges will be punished by the Premier League referees more often than not. It will also be noticed quickly by opposition attackers and they will try to exploit that by exaggerating those pushes to concede fouls in dangerous areas.

Manchester United vs Arsenal - Where Does He Go, and Where Does He Play

The two clubs who seem to be frontrunners for his signature are Manchester United and Arsenal. From a Manchester United POV, there is a huge void in the defensive midfield position. In Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane, Victor Lindelof, Axel Tuanzebe, and maybe Eric Bailly & Phil Jones, Ten Hag has a variety of centre-back options to choose from. In midfield, however, United do not have anyone with the abilities of Lisandro Martínez, and that's where I feel Ten Hag would deploy him too (at least for the 2022/23 season). With Frenkie de Jong also close to joining the Red Devils, Martínez will be able to sit alongside him and give the Dutchman the freedom and confidence he thrives on.

This setup allows Martínez to drop into defence to form a back three, while Malacia and Dalot maintain width by hugging the touchline. Frenkie and Bruno then have the freedom to sit in front of the defence, with Bruno given the license to make runs into the box beyond Ronaldo. Sancho and Amad (or Rashford and Sancho) can come inside and play between the lines or interchange positions with their corresponding full-back depending on the situation. Another benefit of having him play there is that it nullifies, to some extent, the concern of him being dominated by physical attackers, as he would have two centre-backs covering the space behind him in case the attacker gets a flick on.

This setup makes the team very balanced, and allows for a lot of rotations - something Ten Hag will love.

Conclusion

To summarize, whoever gets Martínez this summer gets an excellent player, who can play in multiple positions and fulfill multiple roles to a very high degree. He is a capable defender with good principles while covering space and engaging in duels (both on the ground and aerially). His weakness in the air is mostly a consequence of his size and not his technique, which is good news, but his tendency to lean into opposition attackers can get exploited via flick-ons or conceding fouls by exaggerating contact. He is an excellent progressor of the ball and was one of the best centre-backs in Europe last season for generating goal threat via passes and carries. His skill set is such that he can easily transition into a midfield role which may suit both the Premier League clubs chasing him.

Him being already familiar with Ten Hag (and vice-versa) could lure him to Old Trafford, but either club will still have to pay a sizeable fee to get him out of an Ajax team that has already lost 3 important players this summer and are in no pressure to sell any more of their stars - especially their Player of the Year for 2021/22.

I would be very excited to watch him play under Erik ten Hag if his move to Manchester United does materialize.

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References:

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Wikipedia

Whoscored

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UEFA Champions League & Eredivisie for the clips

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