He still needs a CB next to him who does most of the heading stuff. Which is what Varane has been doing.
Same reason I'm not keen on Lindelof partnering him. Feel like we're pushing our luck there.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 45
- Clean sheets
- 20
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 0
- Yellow cards
- 10
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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Same reason I'm not keen on Lindelof partnering him. Feel like we're pushing our luck there.
He should have had atleast 4 assists. Lot of passing through the lines which should be goals
Not suspended.
While I don’t necessarily disagree, I think the main attribute his partner needs is proactive awareness, which Maguire and, to a lesser extent, Lindelof, most certainly are not.
He's absolutely mint 
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Truly was one of the dumbest narratives in recent memory
Even had a few on here regurgitating that nonsense
Where have William Hill got those stats from? Fbref seems to massively disagree with themTweet
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Truly was one of the dumbest narratives in recent memory
Even had a few on here regurgitating that nonsense
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The whole height thing is ridiculous when the rebuttal is mentioning Franco Baresi and Fabio Cannavaro.
Juxtapose the pundit sound bites on Martinez, with videos of Cannavaro lifting the World Cup and Baresi lifting one of the many fecking trophies he won.
Juxtapose the pundit sound bites on Martinez, with videos of Cannavaro lifting the World Cup and Baresi lifting one of the many fecking trophies he won.
Varane is elite aerially so this is where we might be in trouble.
Agree he’s actually very good at heading. In particular, winning headers that most tall defenders wouldn’t even get to. Martinez is very good at anticipating where the ball is going and often gets ahead of the striker to head the ball away. He’s able to do this due to his agility and low centre of gravity. He does it so well that you often wonder why he gets so many headers unchallenged. It’s because he’s very good at getting to the striking point before anyone else.
A few on here? let's be honest, our own fan started the height thing way before the media. As soon as we were linked with him, all the talk was about his height and price.Tweet
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Truly was one of the dumbest narratives in recent memory
Even had a few on here regurgitating that nonsense
Top top player… he has the sort of mentality that we need in every single one of our players. Every game he gives 100%. He’s proving all his doubters wrong. It’s a shame he’s gonna have a new CB partner for the next few weeks… him and Varane was making such a solid pairing.
It depends on what you mean specifically but that's a very harsh way of looking at it. Martinez more than holds his own in open play aerially; it's probably from set pieces where he may be disadvantaged. Brentford aside, I don't think we've seen him 'exposed' and even then, he was in a good position but slipped.
Agree with this. It should be the other replacements, who should be complimenting and stepping up their game. Lindelof performed okay/didn't make any mistakes against an Everton and Omonia that sat back and offered very little threat but even then it was a very meh performance i.e Martinez was the stand out in passing, defensively, aerials, influence etc. If Lindelof is passive with 1 vs 1s, defers to Martinez in passing and just generally is happy to sit and backtrack, it's going to be a net negative overall. A potentially rejuvenated Villa worries me.
I'm assuming these are per 90mins? Bloody hell, this basically tells us Martinez is elite in every category except aerial duels. That stat is interesting as whilst it may be technically true, I don't recall many where I think 'the player got the ball and has done something with it'. You could probably extrapolate that to be 'true' as it reflects in the other stats i.e interceptions, blocks, tackles etc where it shows he's extremely proactive.
Varane is elite aerially so this is where we might be in trouble.
Yeah I think some of the aerial stats are probably a bit misleading in that you could have someone "win" a header over a CB but really they just got there head to a hoofed clearance that didn't really go anywhere. Feels a bit different than beating a CB in the box and getting a header on target if that makes sense.
Also those stats don't even factor in that Martinez is possibly the best ball playing CB in football (he's right there with Laporte and Matip for me at least)
There is a lot of stats for passes, pass type, progressive passes etc if you are interested in deep diving in to that. This is Martinez in PL so far, individually per 90 min, and how he compares to other CBs (percentile).
Source is fbref, which do not have exactly the same definitions as the official PL stats but all definitions are available.
Edit: What is missing here and would be interesting is the number of one-, and two- touch passes. That gives an indication of speed of passing. I had access to that kind of stats before but not any longer.
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Premier League
van Djik v Saliba v Martinez
Clean Sheet: 4-4-4
Blocks: 8-3-10
Interceptions: 14-6-14
Tackles: 8-18-19
Tackles Won: 3-9-10
Clearances: 42-33-46
Headed Clearances: 19-18-21
Own Goals: 0-1-0
Error Leading Goal: 1-0-0
Penalties Conceded: 1-1-0
Height: 6ft4-6ft4-5ft9.
van Djik v Saliba v Martinez
Clean Sheet: 4-4-4
Blocks: 8-3-10
Interceptions: 14-6-14
Tackles: 8-18-19
Tackles Won: 3-9-10
Clearances: 42-33-46
Headed Clearances: 19-18-21
Own Goals: 0-1-0
Error Leading Goal: 1-0-0
Penalties Conceded: 1-1-0
Height: 6ft4-6ft4-5ft9.
His passing between the lines reminds me of Carrick. I wonder how he’d do in the DM role, obviously it won’t happen with Casemiro there and Martinez being great at CB.
Getting very fed up with the "what will he be like in DM." Shut up, he's a CB.
He’s probably my joint favourite Utd player at the moment along with Fredo. Leaves it all on the pitch. We need a skilful striker but with a similar drive.
He’s genuinely brilliant. What a player and what a guy.
I love Martinez's passion i feel that he sparked something in the squad with Ten Hag
Man Utd 3:0 Sheriff Tiraspol
He's comically good. A couple of those passes he played were absurd tonight.
When an opposition player basically chased him towards our byline, I wasn't worried at all, like I'd have with Maguire. Absolutely no-nonsense performance from him.
He's one of my players of the season. An absolute boss. No fecking around with him.
Him,casemiro and Eriksen would be the first names I'd expect whenever seeing our line up, player of the season so far and it seems that price we paid for him wasn't that bad after all.
Yeah that was in the first half I even remember thinking the same thing.
I was thinking shit Man on, then I saw it was Martinez I'm like ahhh we good.
He even turned the defender and played a brilliant pass through the lines to Eriksen straight after.
Joke of a player, way on his way to being a potential future captain and player of the year.
He barely put a foot wrong in that first half. He had my laughing every time he made a defensive contribution because he was that good. The best part is he doesn’t only win the challenge he comes out with the ball and then sprays a ridiculous pass out. We’ve done it ladies and gentlemen…we’ve finally made a fecking inspired signing!
And it's the way he wins the ball back as well, him and Casemiro make winning the ball back look so easy it almost looks like art.
Then he'll just walk forward with ball, head up and play a perfect pass, perfectly weighted and perfectly placed into either Eriksen or Casemiro.
Was he really our second choice after Timber ? I don't watch much of the Eredivisie but it's hard to believe there's a CB better than him there.
The way he's winning the ball back is like man against boys. Where the boys are twice his size.
Yeh completely agree with you there too. Casemiro is an exceptional tackler and so is Martinez. It almost certainly is an art, and as a defender myself there’s not much I enjoy more than a top defender playing like this.
He's really switched on and proactive. Reads the game well, very composed, great on the ball. Pure class.
Can see why he cost so much now.
Excellent defender and a clever footballer.
Turns out size doesn’t matter so much despite what the missus reads in cosmopolitan
Excellent defender and a clever footballer.
Turns out size doesn’t matter so much despite what the missus reads in cosmopolitan
Tonight it was great to have him and Lindelof who both can hit dangerous balls in to the box, but curious if they’ll start against West Ham who are strong in the air.
It's because we left it late, and fecked around with Timber first. Could've been a real bargain.Can see why he cost so much now.
Excellent defender and a clever footballer.
Turns out size doesn’t matter so much despite what the missus reads in cosmopolitan
He's fecking mint.
I think I might love this man more than my youngest child.
The improvement in our defensive play with him and Casemiro in the team is incredible. 535 minutes played since we last conceded an open play goal.
I think I'm in love with him. An absolute warrior who seems to love defending, but an outstanding footballer as well. A rare combination.
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