Lisandro Martinez: Why Manchester United pushed hard to beat Arsenal to £55m deal
Laurie Whitwell, Art de Roché and more
Jul 18, 2022
Manchester United have reached an agreement to sign Lisandro Martinez, beating Arsenal to the Argentina centre-back. Arsenal hit first but United struck harder and agreed a deal with Ajax that the player readily accepted.
United have agreed to pay about £47million (€55m) for Martinez, plus another £8.5m (€10m) in potential add-ons, with the 24-year-old signing a five-year contract with the option of an additional year.
United’s chief executive Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough travelled to Amsterdam last week to finalise talks, with Ajax chief executive Edwin van der Sar instrumental on the Dutch side.
United view Martinez primarily as a centre-back to provide a different profile of competition to Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof, with the club open to offers for Eric Bailly and Phil Jones.
Erik ten Hag brought Martinez to Ajax in the summer of 2019 as a possible successor to left-back and countryman Nicolas Tagliafico, who is 30 next month, but he instead operated centrally and though not tall at 5ft 9in (175cm), he proved himself one of the best on the ball in the team.
Ten Hag likes players he knows well and can trust. At one stage during a tough period, he benched Martinez for a while but the player responded and regained his place. In Martinez, Ten Hag recognised the mentality he requires.
In terms of playing style, Martinez has brought an edge that Ajax lacked. They are often not as aggressive without him. One game stands out: Ajax’s Champions League game at home to Borussia Dortmund last October. Martinez bettered Erling Haaland in all their duels and Ten Hag made a point of congratulating him in the dressing room after his team’s 4-0 win.
A major draw for Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, meanwhile, was Martinez’s versatility. His ability to play as a left-sided centre-back, at left-back and as a defensive midfielder added to the appeal.
His utility was not the sole reason for the pursuits of United and Arsenal, however. Here, The Athletic assesses the trends of Martinez’s play in respective positions, where he excels, and where there is room for improvement.
For a starting point, here is a general look at his statistics from the 2021-22 campaign.
For these metrics, context is key. Smarterscout’s 0-99 rating relates to how often a player does a given stylistic action compared with others playing in that position. Rather than just totals per 90, these actions are measured per attacking or defensive touch of the ball, which gives a clearer indication of a player’s inclination to play a certain way.
With Martinez, it is clear that he is an aggressive, front-foot defender, shown by his high defending intensity rating (98 out of 99). He is comfortable on the ball, regularly playing short and sharp passes to a nearby team-mate (link-up play volume 74 out of 99), and keeping possession at a high rate (ball retention 80 out of 99) and can create from deep, advancing the ball into dangerous areas (xG from ball progression 95 out of 99). Now for a more detailed look at how he approaches these aspects of play.
How he defends on the ground
He is proactive when defending in ground duels. His smarterscout ratings of 97 out 99 for disrupting opposition moves and 99 out of 99 for ball recoveries and interceptions paint a picture of this — showing that he will frequently look to make tackles and block passes when out of possession.
Watching him defend, this comes down to his anticipation and reading of the game. Rather than waiting for a player to attack him with the ball, he often looks to engage the carrier or receiver, and initiate contact, putting himself in control of the situation.
This worked particularly well for Ten Hag at Ajax. Martinez playing on the front foot meant that his side could defend higher upfield and if the Argentine timed his challenge well, it could result in quick turnovers of play, turning defence into attack within seconds.
In this instance, against ADO Den Haag in March 2021, Martinez has already stepped up from the defensive line anticipating the pass infield.
With eyes on the passer, when the ball is released, he slides in to tackle the ball cleanly and stop the receiving player in their tracks.
After intercepting the ball, he plays a pass straight to Davy Klaassen on the turn, with Ajax now entering the final third.
Martinez goes to ground like this fairly often when defending.
This is the case both when going in for tackles on the front foot as well as when he is running towards his own goal or the touchline to hook channel balls away from danger.
He often times these challenges well but as he is not the fastest defender there are times when he is caught out. That is not a major issue, as no defender will win every one of his duels, but is something to be aware of as his aggressive style of defending may backfire at times.
How he defends in the air
A lot has been made of Martinez’s height — 5ft 9ins is short for a centre-back but he is not weak in the air. As his smarterscout rating of 96 out of 99 for aerial duel quantity suggests, he does not shy away from taking flight.
Despite the Eredivisie being a less physical league than the Premier League, he still had to find ways of being successful in the air. Similarly to his approach on the ground, he tends to engage his opposite number first when defending aerially in open play.
When Ajax beat RKC Waalwijk 3-2 in March, Martinez was up against 6ft 2in (188cm) Jens Odgaard. His touch-tight style was clear on three of the five aerial duels he won against the Waalwijk forward.
Take the below as an example.
Disrupting Odgaard enough, Martinez is in control and wins the header from behind.
If unable to disrupt opponents by grappling with them, having a run-up helps Martinez, as was the case against Benfica in the Champions League.
With eyes for the ball, he has little trouble connecting in the air.
Facing more physical opponents, he has had more protection. When Borussia Dortmund went long against Ajax in the Champions League, a midfielder would drop to disrupt Haaland, giving Martinez more time and space in the air.
This approach may be helpful in the Premier League against physical opponents such as Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Chris Wood or Haaland.
Able to hold his own aerially in open play, Martinez has a bit more difficulty in set-piece situations. This is mostly because a stationary start evens the playing field, allowing his marker or the player he is marking to try and dominate the situation — which can happen if they are more imposing than him.
What is he like in possession at centre-back?
Martinez is primarily a left-sided centre-back. His distribution from this position has got a lot of attention, and rightly so.
Although his smarterscout progressive passing rating is 17 out of 99 — which represents his share of passes that look to move the ball upfield by 10 metres or more — when he decides to go further forward, his accuracy helps Ajax massively. This is best illustrated by his ratings for xG from ball progression (95 out of 99) and xG from shot creation (93 out of 99). Put simply, his actions rate highly towards his team’s attack when compared with other left-sided centre-backs.
The 24-year-old will usually be safe with his passing but, when he has space, he will look for long diagonals to the right wing or behind the left side of the defence.
In this 3-0 win over Groningen last season, Martinez, Edson Alvarez and Davy Klaassen work a quick triangle of passes to create more space near the halfway line.
Getting the ball out of his feet, Martinez pings it into the highlighted space for right-back Noussair Mazraoui to chase.
Mazraoui finished first time on the volley, which shows how valuable Martinez’s vision and execution can be.
These passes will not always lead to goals but allow his team to get up the pitch quicker. They proved useful in the Champions League last season, where Martinez would often target Antony on the right wing. The only drawback is that, at times, defenders would decide to double up on Antony when those passes were made.
Aside from that, they remain the standout aspect of his game in possession. As well as hitting passes across the pitch, he has the ability to find the left winger making a run inside an opposition right-back and right centre-back, whether they be along the floor or over the top.
What is he like in possession at left-back?
Martinez has featured in seven games at left-back for Ajax. These appearances came between September 2020 and January 2021.
Not the quickest player, Martinez did not tend to overlap his winger to get crosses into the box. Instead, he was more reserved and selective with his actions in possession — like here against Fortuna Sittard, where he is found by centre-back Daley Blind.
Martinez attracts the attention of a midfielder but bounces the ball into Klaassen with his first touch, and Ajax can play through the middle of the pitch.
This Blind-to-Martinez inside pass was on against Den Haag.
Gaining possession under less pressure, the Argentina international played the ball out wide to keep the attack going.
When he decided to stay on the touchline, he often looked for passes infield to whoever was in the left half-space in midfield.
Here is an example from his first game at left-back against Waalwijk, where Martinez feeds Quincy Promes.
From there, Promes finds Dusan Tadic wide on the left, who isolated the right-back.
What is he like in midfield?
It was Martinez’s first season at Ajax — 2019-20 — when he played in midfield under Ten Hag. He started the season at centre-back, but from September was used regularly in a double pivot next to Alvarez or Donny van de Beek.
Similar to when he was used at centre-back, he was aggressive defensively and actively looked to turn the ball over. In his debut campaign in the Eredivisie, he averaged two tackles and interceptions per game.
Martinez was able to burst up the pitch from midfield, as well as being fairly composed under pressure. That season, he completed 83 per cent of his dribbles but his average of 0.6 per game shows he only travelled with the ball when he felt it was necessary, rather than it being a trademark.
That has helped since moving back into defence, where he often spins away from pressure.
When used in midfield, Martinez was partial to backheels and flicks to nearby team-mates, but is much safer at centre-back. He still tended to drop deep to distribute the ball, however, which is a theme that has continued.
He got his first Ajax assist in his first start in midfield, in September 2019, by picking up the ball deep and surveying his options.
As Promes makes the run, Martinez clips the ball in behind for his team-mate to chase and finish.
He was often used on the right. The benefits are clear in this passage of play as the pitch is more open for him to find forward players on both sides of the pitch.
For United, Martinez would provide an option in defensive midfield, a position in need of reinforcement. United have lost Nemanja Matic, with Scott McTominay and Fred better when allowed to get up and down the pitch. Martinez could provide that screen.
But he sees such a role as something he can do rather than what he is best at. He prefers central defence, which is where United and Ten Hag view him primarily.
United did not have centre-back high on their list of priorities when drawing up summer targets a few months ago. But Ten Hag’s arrival changed matters and raised Martinez to prominence.
The scouting department had been tracking Pau Torres as an alternative left-footed centre-back, but Ten Hag’s wish has been for a player he knows can operate in the style he wants.
Murtough is backing Ten Hag’s judgment in this regard, and continued to do so during negotiations with Ajax that became more complex as the talks went on. United have got the player at Ten Hag’s behest and it remains to be seen how he will now shape his defence.
(Other contributors: Mark Carey)
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Sam Richardson)
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Lindelof in a fight though.