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Jamie Carragher praises ‘fantastic’ Man Utd centre-back who outshone problematic Martinez
Jamie Carragher praised a Manchester United man

Jamie Carragher has praised a Manchester United centre-back who shone against Leeds alongside Lisandro Martinez, who hit out at the club’s hierarchy in the week.

The Red Devils have had a tumultuous week. After losing to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, centre-back Martinez hit out at club chiefs, telling them they must do more in terms of recruitment.

His suggestion essentially that some of his own team-mates are not good enough did not go down well.

Martinez is believed to have since met with United to iron out their differences in opinion – though there’s now a feeling the Argentine won’t be at the club much longer.

But Michael Carrick didn’t feel it necessary to punish him, starting him against Leeds. Martinez lasted just 45 minutes before he was replaced by Noussair Mazraoui, though.

The defender was the worst-rated starter on the pitch for either side in the 1-1 draw, with just 71 per cent of his passes on target, while he made only two defensive contributions, per FotMob.

In the second 45 minutes, his replacement, Mazraoui, had 10 defensive contributions.

Harry Maguire praised by Jamie Carragher

Both of the aforementioned defenders were trumped by Harry Maguire, who earned a 7.5 rating after playing the full 90 minutes.

The Englishman had 11 defensive contributions – the second most in the game – made three accurate long balls out of three attempted, and had a better pass accuracy than either of the other United centre-backs.

After the match, Carragher, speaking on Sky Sports, was full of praise for Maguire.

He said: “Going away to Leeds is going to be tricky for any team except for Manchester City and Arsenal at the moment.

“A lot of teams will take a point at Leeds this season but the problem for Manchester United is the results have been so poor that they need to start winning games so it almost feels like two points dropped.

“But in isolation, getting a point at Leeds is a decent result. I thought Harry Maguire was fantastic, especially in the second half.

“After Leeds got that goal back there was a stage of the game where it felt like Man United could go under, but Maguire at the back held it together for them. He was fantastic.”

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