JAMIE CARRAGHER has insisted Gary Neville is getting “carried away” with Lisandro Martinez as he continued to cast doubt over the defender.
The punditry pair have clashed repeatedly over Manchester United’s new defender, who stands at only 5ft 9in.
The Red Devils signed Martinez from Ajax in July and he has had a mixed start to life at Old Trafford.
The defender came under fire from Carragher as he and his teammates were torn apart by Brentford last month.
This followed their opening weekend loss at home to Brighton.
But the form since then has turned around with Harry Maguire dropped and Martinez now paired with Raphael Varane.
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Neville was curious as to whether his Sky Sports colleague had altered his view in light of the centre-back’s uptick in form.
Speaking on his podcast The Overlap, Neville said: “Have you changed your mind on Martinez, by the way?”
Carragher responded: “I think he’s a good player. I wouldn’t want a centre-back who was 5ft 9” in my team. I would not.
As Neville press the ex-Liverpool defender on his view, Carragher said the former right-back had gotten “carried away” by a few good performances.
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He said: “We’ve had four games [of Martinez being in form]. You’re getting carried away. If [Martin] Odegaard scores the opening goal then you’ll be saying he made a mistake.
“But for a defender to be 5ft 9” and play, never mind in the Premier League, at any level of football, he’s got to be a good player. Because that is not normal.
“His passing is very good, he looks aggressive. He looks like a leader. He’s not a bad player, but to play at that level of football at 5ft 9″ – I wouldn’t want to play alongside someone who was 5ft 9″ as a centre back.”
The pundit did concede that you can still be a great defender and not particularly tall as he cited greats such as Franco Baresi and Bobby Moore.
He added: “So for Martinez to play at this level, he’s obviously a good player. He has to be, because of his height. But at times, that will cost him.
“But if he is nine out of ten at everything else, it will compensate for being 5ft 9″. Because at times, if you are that height, you will get exposed as we saw in the first two games.”
Since their calamitous start to the season, United have beat Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and now Arsenal.
Martinez and co will face their latest test as they travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
