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Respected Manchester United reporter Andy Mitten has claimed that he thought a defence of Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire would be more solid than the more regular centre back partnership of Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez.
The Dutchman was brought in this summer to replace the departing Raphael Varane and many fans were excited that Ten Hag had successfully signed a player who had shone for him in the past.
After a positive start, De Ligt, alongside Martinez have had a challenging few games and this was clearly on show in series of comical errors against FC Porto in the 3-3 draw last Thursday night.
Speaking on The Athletic’s Talk of the Devils podcast, Mitten claimed that while he was walking into the stadium on Sunday and heard the team news he thought, “honestly when I heard that (Evans and Maguire starting), I thought that defence would be more secure than we’ve seen, that was my initial reaction.”
“After a pretty encouraging start for De Ligt and Martinez, they have been making too many mistakes.
“When I watched Martinez in Portugal I thought, where is the player who looked so assured next to Raphael Varane in his first season?”
Mitten then speculated that perhaps we are now seeing how badly some departures like the Frenchman or Scott McTominay are being missed in the current side and perhaps it was partnering Varane that made Martinez look a better player.
The Athletic journalist Laurie Whitwell claimed it was incredibly telling that the under-fire coach “took out two players that he signed, two players he has worked with before, for good money and they are supposed to be United’s first choice centre back partnership. Yes the context is, in Porto they were very bad, in one sense you can say there is a manager not having favourites and making a bold call.”
He did believe it was a “contradiction” though as he hasn’t backed his own signings in his hour of need and Mitten agreed that it was hardly an “endorsement” of his own recruitment.
He added, “he’s gone with tried and trusted, Harry and Jonny came on in Porto, both did well, Harry got the late equaliser, a real captain’s performance.”
Whitwell then lavished praise on man of the match Evans by claiming he feels he deserves more respect than the media give him and that he is not “someone who has come in as a competition winner” and that he has had a “fantastic career” who according to current form “should be one of United’s first choice centre backs” in spite of his age.
Mitten described him as “technically excellent” and someone who “reads the game so well” and there is a reason why managers like Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger tried to sign him in the past. He finished his praise by referring to him as a “proper baller”.
However, the fact that United’s most stable defensive performance came from a partnership of two defenders over 30 years old is incredibly worrying and certainly not sustainable for the future.
Whilst it is still far too early to write off De Ligt and Martinez as a partnership, they have certainly proven that they have a lot of work to do to be the automatic starters many imagined they would be.
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