Without Lisandro Martinez, Manchester United is preparing for a new experiment under Erik ten Hag.

Erik ten Hag loses the only senior central defender who is guaranteed to stay at Manchester United for the upcoming campaign, just when he had every one of them at his disposal.

Ollie Watkins’ lone goal against Manchester United came when Lisandro Martinez was off the field, so the Aston Villa forward will not face the Argentine in a match on Sunday.

In the League Cup last season, Watkins gave Villa a 1-0 lead at Old Trafford by running onto a threaded pass and clipping the ball over Martin Dubravka, who would later be the answer to a pub quiz question. Harry Maguire dodged a curved pass from defender Jacob Ramsey.

Since it was a domestic cup game, Maguire’s starting position was merely temporary. Three days later, Martinez returned to the starting lineup for that week’s

That was United’s last game before the players departed for the World Cup in Qatar. It was also the evening that the knowledge that Cristiano Ronaldo had given a fiery interview to Talk TV soured the team’s spirits on the flight back to Manchester.

Ronaldo gave Martinez a shout-out, citing him as one of just three teammates he looked up to. After just three months of playing for United, Martinez was already regarded by fans on the terraces as a cult hero.

Over the next eight weeks, his absence will be felt. Martinez will undoubtedly miss seven games, but his layoff will end just in time for the March internationals. On March 30 or later, London is demanding the center half at Brentford.

United will have to manage without their only senior center half who is guaranteed to stay with the team for the upcoming season. Raphael Varane and Jonny Evans are out of contract in June, Victor Lindelof is next year and the next three months will have a big bearing on Maguire’s future.

Watkins’ goal has unsettling similarities to Jarrod Bowen’s one-on-one that Diogo Dalot thwarted against West Ham. Maguire misses the aerial ball far too easily.

That wasn’t his only mistake. At 1-0, he was on the receiving end of a pass that Emerson Palmieri pounced on, rather than the attacking end. Maguire has demonstrated that in the past (Leicester away, October 2021). The absence of a goal was the only distinction.

At Bramall Lane, Watkins had a more rhythmic Saturday night than Whigfield, netting one goal and setting up another two. Watkins is the first Villa player to reach double figures in those metrics in the top flight since Dwight Yorke in 1995–1996. This season, he has 11 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League.
If Watkins, 28, hadn’t extended his Villa contract by an additional five years in October, prestigious clubs would have been keeping an eye on him. Now no one will approach him. Nine-figure valuation for a striker with Premier League experience, an England international, and a top-four club right now.

In April of last year, when Villa made a Premier League comeback to M16, Watkins had already scored 11 goals in 14 games. Three full-backs and a center back made up United’s back four, but they shut down Watkins and maintained a spotless record in a 1-0 victory.

For the third consecutive game that afternoon, the defensive axis, Luke Shaw and Lindelof, were paired together. Shaw demonstrated that he is nearly as good at center back as he is at left back, and Lindelof enjoyed his best run of play for the team during the final 12 games of the previous campaign.

At Villa Park, it’s likely to be an entirely different pairing. Varane was rested against West Ham because, according to a prominent

On his first start in almost nine weeks, Maguire’s two almost costly mistakes marred an otherwise impressive return this past weekend. It’s easy to forget that United supporters were serenading him when he hobbled off against Bayern Munich after clutching his groin. Maguire won November’s Premier League Player of the Month award for his admirable tenacity.

Yet starting Varane and Maguire would be a further contradiction. Earlier in the season, Erik ten Hag made it clear that they were vying for the same right-sided center-half position. Lindelof was positioned between the skillful left-handed defenders.

Lindelof underwent groin surgery in December and has since returned from a ten-week extended layoff. Against West Ham, Evans was relegated to the directors’ box instead of the dugout following a time of prominence.

Under Ten Hag, Maguire and Varane have only started three games together (all this season), and none of them were in the league. However, United has a history of appeasing Watkins. additionally without Martinez.