Lisandro Martinez gets backing from Virgil van Dijk after pundit criticism

Add as preferred source on Google

Lisandro Martinez has quickly proven he has what it takes to succeed at Manchester United with a succession of strong performances for the club.

All the pundits who were quick to criticise him early in the season have been left embarrassed, including Jamie Carragher who said he was too small to play in the Premier League.

Martinez doesn’t need anybody to fight his corner, that’s been evident on the pitch, but it is interesting all the same to see Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk come out and slam Carragher’s comments.

Carragher is yet to apologise and admit he was wrong, despite the overwhelming evidence – which really began mounting with Martinez’s star performance against Liverpool back in August.

Van Dijk sticks up for Martinez

Van Dijk was speaking to Gary Neville on The Overlap, when the topic of Lisandro Martinez came up.

Having played against Martinez he was well placed to respond, and talked up his fellow professional.

Van Dijk said: “People talking about Lisandro Martínez and his height, are talking absolute rubbish.

“It can help as a centre-back if you’re a bit taller, but what he’s done since coming to the Premier League, has been good.”

Martinez has started every single game for Manchester United this season, and is part of a team which has kept nine clean sheets this season in all competitions, and six in the last seven games.

The only goal United have conceded in the last 12 hours of football was the penalty away at Chelsea.

Martinez has helped keep up this record despite teammate Raphael Varane suffering an injury in that game, and has played with two different defensive partners since.

An apology likely won’t come from the pundits who wrote him off, which include Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness, and there are certainly those who will be waiting for him to have a bad game, before launching another tirade.

Manchester United supporters who have been watching him every week know how good he is, and seemingly so does Virgil van Dijk,