“Apoligies!” – Pundit completes U-Turn on Man United player in Premier League Biggest Surprise award

Jamie Carragher has completed his U-turn on Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez after naming him the surprise of the season following his debut Premier League campaign.

Martinez, 25, joined United from Ajax last summer as one of Erik ten Hag’s key signings during his first transfer window at the club.

The Dutch manager was without a left-footed centre-back and felt that it was crucial to his system; so he brought along his Player of the Season from his last year in Amsterdam.

After a tough start to the season for the club and the Argentine, many began to question his ability to defend in the Premier League as a 5’9 centreal defender, including Jamie Carragher.

The former Liverpool defender was firm in his opinion that Martinez could not play in a back four in England’s top flight.

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Yet, United’s no.6 quickly emerged as one of the team’s most important players and also one of the best defenders in the league as United surged into the top four and won the Carabao Cup in February.

Unfortunately, the South American will miss out on United’s second cup final of the season as they face Manchester City in the FA Cup Final next month after suffering a season-ended injury in a Europa League fixture against Sevilla at the beginning of April.

His absence has already been felt since then, only strengthening the opinion that he is a vital player at Old Trafford.

Carragher has previously come out against his early-season claims about Martinez, however, in the last Monday Night Football episode of the season, he issued an apology to the United defender after naming him as his surpise of the season.

Quizzed on his take about Martinez being unable to play centrally in the Premier League, Carragher responded: “That’s not about Lisandro Martinez, that’s about any centre-back coming to the Premier League who is well under six foot, you think ‘he’s going to have a problem’, but he hasn’t.

“Every player has weaknesses, whatever that may be – whether that be physically or techinically – and the best players hide thir weaknesses, we’ve all got them, no one’s a perfect player.

“And I just thought ‘how can you overcome that in the Premier League’… but when you’re now talking about the role of Casemiro and when he’s not in the Man United team, I think it’s (also) a massive drop off when Martinez is not in the Man United team; defensively but also his ability on the ball and playing out of the back.

“He’s a warrior, he’s a leader and when you think of the spine of the team – certainly him and Casemiro – I think they’ve made a huge difference. So apologies Lisandro! And Man United fans can you please stop tweeting me about Lisandro!”

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