Jamie Carragher has apologised to Lisandro Martínez. Shortly after the arrival of the Argentinian in the Premier League, the analyst was extremely sceptical about the former Ajax player.
Carragher “I was wrong, Martínez turned out to be the leader of Man Utd”
After the first two games of the season, both of which Manchester United lost, Carragher lashed out at Martínez. The defender would be too small and could never handle the intensity of the Premier League. He returned from that on Monday at Sky Sports. He said, “Any central defender of his height who comes to this competition will have a problem with the physical violence. Only not him.”
“Every player has weaknesses, like Martínez has his height, but the best players hide their weaknesses,” Carragher said. The Argentine world champion did that properly, according to the former international. “If he doesn’t play now, Manchester United will lose a lot. Defensively he is very good, while on the ball he also has the ability to lead the build-up,” he added.
Carragher has changed his mind about the defender months after his criticism. Rigorous even. “He’s a warrior, he’s the leader. Both Casemiro and he have made a big difference at Old Trafford. So hereby my apologies to Lisandro Martínez. He has proven himself,” he admitted.
Martinez has been injured for a while now. The defender aims his arrows at next season.
Botman gets a place of honour
Newcastle United can look back on a great season: the powerhouse from North East England will return to the Champions League in September after an absence of twenty years. An important pillar of the success was defender Sven Botman, who now also gets the credits from not just anyone.
Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville agreed at the centre back on the starting spot for champion City’s Rúben Dias. In addition to the Portuguese, Carragher went for Botman.
Carragher said, “He came as a player who was linked to many top clubs. He came to Newcastle and they have the best statistics of the league defensively, along with Man City. It’s there every week, and look how many times they’ve kept the zero.” Newcastle have so far succeeded fourteen times, as often as Liverpool, but Manchester United leads that statistic with seventeen.
