It is difficult, if not impossible, to find a lower player than Lisandro Martínez, who has flourished as a center-back in the Premier League.
The Ajax defender cult is the subject of a £ 43million bid from Manchester United, but while he is hailed for his skill with the ball and reading the game, it is not surprising they have asked questions about his height.
With five feet and nine inches (or 175 cm), Martinez will be the lowest central defender in the top English category next season, if he follows his former coach, Erik ten Hag, from Johan Cruyff Stadium in Amsterdam to at Old Trafford.
And he will face some of the great strikers of world football.
Lisandro Martinez of Ajax is a £ 43million target for Manchester United despite his small stature
Erik ten Hag knows Martinez well after working with him the last three seasons at Ajax
Above the tiny Argentine will be Bournemouth Welsh giant Kieffer Moore and Norwegian newcomer East Beast Erling Haaland at Manchester City, who are both about six feet five, so eight inches taller. that Martinez.
In fact, unfortunately for the Ajax taper, the trend towards smaller strikers will be reversed in the next campaign and the Big Number Nine is back in vogue in the Premier League.
There could be eight large central strikers lining up against him next season, stretching the tape measure to six feet and three or more, including Chris Wood in Newcastle.
Meanwhile, people like Darwin Núñez, who has joined Liverpool from Benfica, are barely six feet two.
With five feet and nine, the defender will face Erling Haaland, eight inches taller.
Bournemouth’s Kieffer Moore is also six feet five and the Welshman will be a handful
To any extent, six to eight inches (or 15 to 20 cm) is a lot to concede to an opponent and former United and England center-back Rio Ferdinand fears it is too much.
“You have to be physically prepared to play against these great strikers,” Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel Five.
‘[Darwin] Núñez i [Erling] Haaland has just joined the big teams of Liverpool and Man City. They are over six feet tall; you will have to deal with people like that on a regular basis.
“Chris Wood in Newcastle, these are big, big guys, you can go through the league and find players like that. He’ll be able to face people like that because, physically, he’s on the smaller side for a half. central?
Ferran is respectful. Lisandro is small in this position in England. Point.
Among the great Premier League strikers is Newcastle’s Chris Wood
Martinez is confident in his ability to handle strikers and is one of the best defenders in the Netherlands
During the last campaign, Chelsea defender and captain César Azpilicueta, 32, was one of the lowest central defenders.
He replaced the Blues 12 times in the first category, but is still more than an inch (3 cm) taller than Martinez, which is important if one of your key performance indicators is to win aerial duels.
Nathan Ake, 27, did a decent job at Manchester City when he played as a central defender in nine of the 14 Premier League appearances last season, but has a two-inch-high lead.
So why does Hag want Martinez so much that he is willing to take risks with the height of the player?
Ten Hag (c) used Martinez (left) in midfield in the 2019-20 season, before restoring him to defense
The Dutchman simply wants possession of the ball and Martinez excels in this aspect of the game, but also relies on him to adapt to the defensive challenge.
Ten Hag is well aware of Martinez’s tactical strengths. At Ajax he played at the base of his midfield during the 2019-20 campaign, where the Argentine easily pulled the strings of one of the most successful technical teams in Europe.
“We were looking for a brain for the center of the field,” Ten Hag said. “We knew Martinez had played in midfield, but could he do it with the Ajax system? We tried him there and saw good things.”
Martinez makes a comparison with Javier Mascherano, who is five feet nine, but an inch shorter. Mascherano was converted from defensive midfielder to defender by Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.
Guardiola wanted Barça to control the game from the back to the front and to do so he needed a central defender who excelled with the ball, even though he could dominate rivals.
The play was a great success, although the same player was not always completely enthusiastic, Mascherano did win five league titles, two Champions Leagues and two FIFA Club World Cups with Pep.
Like Mascherano, Martinez is a defender who can play, and what is lost in height must be offset by new, aggressiveness and quality.
And as happened with his compatriot, Martínez has shown that he can play games not only from the middle of the field, but also from the center of the bottom line.
Martinez is similar to Javier Mascherano, who played in midfield and defense with great effect
Like Mascherano, Martínez is excellent with the ball and is comfortable playing from behind
He averaged 92.4 passes every 90 minutes, more than any other Eredivisie player last season. He can play short or long and with an accuracy of almost 90 percent, he was one of the best distributors of the ball in the league.
If Frenkie de Jong can be seen away from Barcelona, this pair is able to establish control of the matches, which will help United in attack and defense. This is the prize Hag is looking for.
Still, Ferdinand is right to highlight the physique of the Premier League strikers. Martinez has not experienced such an onslaught in the Netherlands.
However, the 24-year-old has defended high balls and centers well and, on the whole, has not been exposed by the big ones, when he has faced them.
On the way to winning the Eredivisie, Martinez won 79 of his aerial duels. These stats compare well with United’s best defensive header, Harry Maguire, who won 75 aerial battles in the Premier League last season, and both players secured victory in more than seven of 10 challenges.
Harry Maguire would be able to act as Martinez’s watchman on the pieces stopped with his air power
Of course, the overall quality of the Premier League is ahead of the Eredivisie, with more highly contested matches in England compared to the Netherlands. (Ajax scored five or more goals on 10 occasions last season).
But football in the Netherlands is not just about stroking the ball. There are now a similar number of headers per match on the first English and Dutch flights, according to Statsbomb. And there were actually more crosses in the Netherlands, with 18 per game, compared to England’s 12 at the top level, during last season.
In league games, Martinez faced four strikers, six feet and three or more, and while they weren’t on the same level as Haaland and Núñez, they only scored two goals between them, one at a break and another on a shot from the edge of the box.
And the Ajax man competed against both Haaland and Nunez in the Champions League.
Martinez stood out in the Champions League against Haaland, eliminating the attacks
But Benfica defeated Ajax in the round of 16, Núñez scored the decisive goal from a corner.
He dominated the Norwegian in his only match in Group C, easily tackling Borussia Dortmund’s counterattack style and using his quality on the ball to constantly get away from problems and launch attacks, in an excellent demonstration.
Benfica caused more problems for Ajax in the round of 16, and Núñez got a 2-3 overall victory over Amsterdam in the return leg after heading home from a corner.
Ajax struggled to face stoppage plays with Núñez and Jan Vertonghen wreaking havoc, but that wasn’t just for Martínez. His Ajax central defensive teammate, 21-year-old Jurrien Timber, is only 5 feet 10 inches tall himself, and Núñez beat him to win.
It should be noted that at United, in the 4-3-3 formation ten Hag has always favored, Martinez would pay attention.
Maguire, for all his critics, is dominant in the air and makes good use of his six-foot-four box, Raphael Varane is six-foot-three and Victor Lindelof is six-foot-two.
And what Martinez lacks in height makes up for on the ground. In addition to his balance with the ball, the statistics website Soccerment ranks him as the Eredivisie’s second-best defender (just behind teammate Timber).
He scores well in all the usual measures, such as won duels, tackles and interceptions. But when you watch it play, there’s a reading of the game that the data doesn’t capture easily. He constantly intervenes to force the problem with the attackers at the right time, or leaves to cover the race behind and is excellent one on one.
United’s defense seemed heavy last season, so incorporating such a smart and sensitive player may be exactly what is needed.
While a five-foot-nine center-back is unusual in the Premier League, he is no stranger to Europe. In fact, one of the best defenders the world has ever seen had a similar height.
The winner of the World Cup, the Italian Fabio Cannavaro is one centimeter taller than Martínez
And Cannavaro (left) is considered one of the best defenders the game has ever played
Italian legend Fabio Cannavaro was called up 136 times by Italy and helped his country win the 2006 World Cup by keeping five goals blank. The same year he won the Golden Ball and the FIFA World Player of the Year Award.
Cannavaro, whose career spanned Parma, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid, is only an inch taller than Martinez. He made use of tactical intelligence, strength and, despite his stature, was also admired for his course, which synchronized his jump to perfection.
Martínez’s height may have worried the coaches of his first Argentine club, Newell’s Old Boys, but he hasn’t stopped him since then and, like Cannavaro, he is known for …