{"id":654511,"date":"2026-10-14T13:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T13:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/654511\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T13:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T13:28:21","slug":"lisandro-martinez-launches-scathing-attack-on-manchester-uniteds-leadership-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/654511\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisandro Martinez launches scathing attack on Manchester United\u2019s leadership \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lisandro Martinez called out Manchester United\u2019s<\/a> lack of ambition as the defender doubled down on his withering criticism of the club\u2019s hierarchy.<\/p>\n

Michael Carrick\u2019s 10 men fell to a 2-0 loss at Atletico Madrid<\/a> in the Champions League on Tuesday but the only talking point afterwards revolved around a player nicknamed \u201cThe Butcher\u201d wielding his cleaver.<\/p>\n

Martinez criticised United\u2019s director of football Jason Wilcox for a lack of summer transfer business during an interview with Prime Video.<\/p>\n

But the Argentina international did not stop there as the outspoken centre-back reiterated his stance when speaking to former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel on CBS Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to be positive and trying to be honest,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cWe have to change, we have to do more because I think we are capable to do better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the players and, yeah, we expect but also, for sure, when you watch the television and you watch the games, you see the players and the manager and you point the finger, which is right.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take the responsibility but also as a club I expect more, you know. I expect more. I\u2019m not going to close my mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect more. We need more and we need more ambition. We need to talk more about winning the Champions League, to talk about winning the Premier League in terms of other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Schmeichel pointed out that it was only October, the frustrated United defender said: \u201cYeah, but every season we are talking the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the 1999 treble winner interjected to say clubs did not win or lose anything at this stage of a campaign, Martinez said: \u201cNo, no for sure. For sure. But if we don\u2019t say the truth, nothing will change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s interviews will dominate the build-up to Sunday\u2019s eagerly-anticipated Premier League trip to rivals Leeds as pressure mounts on Carrick.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old suggested there should also be focus on the Ineos-led boardroom as United travel to West Yorkshire with their worst points tally after six games since 1986 and fresh from a fruitless night in Spain.<\/p>\n

United reacted well after falling behind inside a minute to an avoidable Pablo Barrios goal, with Atleti substitute Ademola Lookman completing a 2-0 win shortly after Leny Yoro was sent off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the belief, the energy [are issues],\u201d Martinez said. \u201cWe are not playing well as a team. You can see the disconnection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do sometimes three, four passes together and the body language. We miss some chances and we are negative.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, yeah, when you play against these teams, especially in Champions League, you can\u2019t miss [the] opportunity and you can\u2019t concede in the first minute the goal we concede and, yeah, that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether the disconnect he mentioned was down to a lack of confidence, fitness or understanding, the United defender said: \u201cYeah, for sure the confidence and also the rotation in the team, you know.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we have many, many games and you have to rotate players and, for me, we don\u2019t have the best squad at the moment compared with other top teams.\u201d – PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisandro Martinez called out Manchester United\u2019s lack of ambition as the defender doubled down on his withering criticism…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15013,42,917,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-654511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-champions-league","tag-headlines","tag-manchester-united","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}