What changed
Lisandro Martinez criticised Manchester United’s hierarchy after Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid. He said the club should have strengthened the squad after returning to the Champions League and called for more from technical director Jason Wilcox.
United have now gone five matches without a win. The club spent £155m on three midfielders this summer, while Martinez said the squad still needed striking support for Benjamin Sesko and competition for Luke Shaw.
Why it matters
This was more than a frustrated post-match complaint. Martinez pushed responsibility beyond the manager and players, arguing that United’s squad was not built strongly enough for nights like this.
That puts recruitment at the centre of the crisis. United finished third last season and returned to Europe’s biggest competition, but their spending focused entirely on midfield. The gap Martinez identified is now visible in results: their last win came against Sabah FK on 10 September, and their only other victory was a comeback against newly promoted Ipswich.
The timing is awkward for everyone involved. Martinez has one year left on his contract, while minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe sat beside chief executive Omar Berrada in Madrid. Whether the criticism changes recruitment priorities or affects Martinez’s contract talks is unclear, but it has made the club’s internal argument public.
Former United players Wayne Rooney and Ashley Young said Martinez had gone too far. Rooney warned that comments like these could damage the dressing room and recalled regretting his own public criticism of United in 2010.
Michael Carrick declined to engage with the issue after the match, saying he had only half heard about the interview and that immediately after the game was not the time to discuss it. That leaves United with two problems to solve at once: a team that is not winning, and a debate over squad-building that is now happening in full view.
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