Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez was lucky to escape a red card after replays showed that he scraped his boot off the face and head of Patrick Bamford during the pulsating 2-2 draw with Leeds. The physical Argentine centre-back, who is adored at Old Trafford because of his hands-on approach to defending, may have overstepped the mark this though – despite escaping punishment.
With United trailing heading into the break following Wilfried Gnonto’s quick-fire opener, Martinez appeared to take his frustrations out on market Bamford as they battled for the ball.
Bamford slammed into the former Ajax man in first-half stoppage time before the pair both went to ground following the impact of the collision.
But as Martinez climbed to his feet, he appeared to move his boot against the face and head of Bamford before seemingly noting his actions as part of an attempt to plead his innocence.
Leeds frontman Bamford certainly felt the impact of the incident as he writhed around in pain on the turf but VAR wasn’t interested.
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“But I was one of the ones questioning, ‘Is he physically gonna be able to compete here if teams isolate him, if teams isolate him?’
“That’s where Erik ten Hag has been confident in tactically being able to keep teams away from being able to dominate enough possession to isolate someone like Martinez.”
He later added: “And, up till now, he hasn’t been exposed in that sense. On a regular basis, week after week, are we not sitting there going, ‘That’s a recurring problem, there. It continues to happen, someone’s pulling out on him and jumping over him or bullying him physically’.
“We haven’t seen that, that hasn’t become the narrative, and you have to say well done to him but also well done to the recruitment up to now.”
United survived a major scare against Leeds on Wednesday night having trailed the manager-less Whites 2-0 in the second half before Marcus Rashford inspired a late fightback.
The 25-year-old bagged his 11th top-flight goal of the season before Jadon Sancho levelled things up on his return to Premier League action.
Sancho was very impressive from the bench, seemingly justifying Erik ten Hag’s decision to send him to Holland to sharpen his fitness levels.
United now travel to Elland Road on Sunday as they prepare to carry out revenge on Leeds in the return fixture.
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