Is Lisandro Martínez Right to ‘Expect More’ From Manchester United?
Manchester United defender Lisandro Martínez reacted to defeat at Atlético Madrid by complaining about a lack of investment by the club.
We’re not even halfway through October, and frustration has already boiled over at Manchester United.
Following Tuesday night’s Champions League defeat at Atlético Madrid, United are now without a win in five games in all competitions. It’s their longest run since a six-game streak in January 2025 (D2 L4), and pressure is mounting on manager Michael Carrick.
This defeat in the Spanish capital was no major disaster on its own. Losing away to a very good team like Atlético, who have more home Champions League wins since the start of 2023-24 (15) than any other team apart from Arsenal and Bayern Munich (16 each), is no reason for a full-blown crisis, especially given United also had to play with 10 men for the last part of the game after Leny Yoro was given a very harsh red card.
Yes, United aren’t on a great run and this loss added to concern about Carrick’s suitability for the manager’s job in the long-term, but this game could have been glossed over. There were enough positives from the performance in a tough environment with several players missing through injury that, of all the mishaps this season, this wasn’t the one to throw the club into crisis. United created four Opta-defined ‘big chances’ – opportunities you’d reasonably expect them to convert – but failed to score. Atléti had just two but won 2-0.
But Lisandro Martínez’s post-match interview ensured attention would not quickly turn to Leeds away on Sunday. The Argentine centre-back used his chance in front of the media as an opportunity to complain about the lack of investment in the United playing squad.
Lisandro Martínez did NOT hold back after United's loss to Atletico 😬👀 pic.twitter.com/OGo25Pzd30
— Prime Video Sport UK (@primevideosport) October 13, 2026
“I have to control myself a lot,” he said. “But sometimes it is the reflection, the mirror, for our club at the moment. A fantastic season last season, but now we are far from the top. We have to bring in more players to compete. Look at Atlético, they had an amazing team, they deserved to win.
“I expect more, from everyone. More investment? Yes, 100%. I expect more from our technical director, I have to be honest.”
His outburst was always going to divide opinion. For some, it felt rich for the Argentine to be complaining about a lack of signings given he had just started a Champions League game behind an entirely new £155 million midfield of Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos. The summer before, United spent big on a new-look forward line of Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko.
It may also have been hard for some to hear these words coming from Martínez, who has made an inconsistent start to the season, highlighted most starkly and most recently by how easily he was beaten by Dominic Solanke for 10-man Tottenham’s injury-time equaliser at Old Trafford at the weekend.
But it certainly struck a chord with many United fans who believe more work needed to be done to improve the squad after qualification for the Champions League when United played a grand total of just 40 games in 2025-26. “Last season we created a base to build an amazing team,” Martínez said.
While United did buy a few players this summer, they also tried and failed to sign all of Elliot Anderson, Sandro Tonali, Matheus Fernandes, Alex Scott, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Lewis Hall. They weren’t at all decisive in the transfer market.
The most glaring issue is surely in defence, though, which may have been precisely where Martínez’s frustrations lie. The most obvious of the problems is at left-back, where after early-season injuries to Luke Shaw and Patrick Dorgu, who can fill in in defence, United were left with 20-year-old centre-back Ayden Heaven for the trip to Atlético. It was his first ever senior start at left-back in his first ever Champions League appearance.
Shaw was fit for the whole of last season but his injury record made it impossible that he would be able to contend with the demands of midweek European fixtures. That was obvious to just about everyone apart from, seemingly, the United hierarchy in the summer, and they failed to act.
It is especially galling given rivals at the top of the table just would not neglect a problem position in this way. For example, Arsenal spent £50m on Ezri Konsa after seeing William Saliba suffer an injury that would keep him out of the first part of the season even though they already had Cristhian Mosquera as back-up.
Perhaps United weren’t in a financial position to sign anyone else, but that would be surprising given the extra money brought in by qualification for the Champions League. United’s net spend in the summer was lower than any of Ipswich, Spurs, Hull and Coventry, and was only just above that of Brentford.
The club may have concluded there was nobody available on the market who was worth spending on to reinforce at left-back, but not signing anyone at all was surely not the correct approach. Everyone else could see that some kind of reinforcement was needed.
The final option may be that they simply could not attract anyone, but if that is true for a club the size of United, then something major is going wrong at the top.
At right-back and in central defence, meanwhile, it’s arguable that United could have done with at least one more player. For a team playing in four competitions this season, they are not blessed with a great deal of depth anywhere, but most strikingly in defence.
Whether it was right for Martínez to make this outburst at this time, with two and a half months to go until the transfer window opens, is another matter entirely, but there is without question good reason for him, and everyone at United, to be frustrated.
With no opportunity for investment any time soon, though, the players need to focus on improving matters on the pitch, and Martínez needs to improve more than most.
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