Man United icon Roy Keane launches Lisandro Martinez defence but admits he ‘will be found out in games’

03.10.2022 - 00:33 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Not many, if any at all, of the Manchester United players came out of Sunday's humbling derby defeat to bitter rivals Man City with much credit.

Erik ten Hag's side were simply blown away by their city rivals in a chastening 6-3 defeat at the Etihad.

Pre-match, much of the talk was about how City's red-hot forward Erling Haaland would fare against United's centre-half Lisandro Martinez.

Whilst Haaland scored a scintillating hat-trick it would be unfair to portion more of the blame to Martinez given the fact the entire United team were at fault.

Read more:All 14 players to have represented City and United post-war

Roy Keane, the former United captain, defended the Argentine pre-match and although he said his diminutive height means the former Ajax centre-back will at times struggle in the Premier League, overall he's seen enough to believe he will be a success at Old Trafford.

Speaking on Sky Sports pre-match, Keane said: "We can focus on what players can’t do but if you focus on what they’re good at, he’s an experienced player, he’s new to the league and one bad game, everyone’s writing him off.

"The most important thing was the manager knew him, he knew his qualities, he knew he could play well at Man United and knew he could deal with those expectations.

"I like the look of him, he’ll be found out in certain games because of his height but he’s tenacious, reads the game well and it’s just as important for Man United, he looks like he’s got plenty of fight and personality - which is huge."

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