Lisandro Martinez’s man of the match performance vs Southampton in numbers

After Lisandro Martinez signed for Manchester United he became the shortest centre-back in the Premier League.

This influenced several pundits into thinking the Argentine would be a disaster signing for the Red Devils because he was apparently incapable of altering his game from the Eredivisie to the Premier League.

It didn’t help when Brentford targeted Martinez with long balls two weeks ago, but United coped much better with Southampton’s aerial threat a week later and BT Sport named the Argentina international as their man of the match.

Bruno Fernandes scored the only goal from a volley while David de Gea earned a deserved clean sheet.

This meant Martinez picked up early criticism in his first two appearances for United – mostly due to his height – but we were abysmal as a team against Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford.

It looks like Martinez and Raphael Varane are in the process of laying foundations to form a formidable partnership at the back. That hasn’t existed in our squad for years.

Lisandro Martinez’s performance vs Southampton in numbers:

100% ground deals won
100% successful dribbles
61 touches
48 passes
7 clearances
5/5 aerial duels won
4 interceptions

Stats via Statman Dave

Fingers crossed Varane and Martinez can build on this partnership and make United a difficult unit to break down.

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