Lisandro Martinez has enjoyed a fantastic start at Old Trafford and believes Manchester United are getting more and more used to Erik ten Hag’s methods.
In an interview with Sky Sports News, Martinez said: “Sometimes we have to be patient, you know.
“Especially at the beginning, we know that we did not play as we wanted. But it is part of football, we learn. it is experience. We have a new team, a new system. Now we have to continue.
“It’s difficult. Especially in football, you don’t have time. If you lose, you’re a really bad player or a really bad team. But we know what we are. We have to be calm, we have to be patient and always try hard.”
The Argentine knows how extreme criticism can be, having been told by pundit Jamie Carragher that he “couldn’t play” as a central defender in the Premier League following his half-time retirement during United’s 4-0 loss at Brentford. .
Since then, he has shown that he could very well be 9’5” given his ability to handle the most physical center forwards in the league.
The ‘Butcher’ worked with Raphael Varane to keep Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son virtually out of chance on Wednesday night.
“We did a great job. We controlled the game, the whole 90 minutes. I think they only had one chance in the first half and then we were solid defensively.
“I am very happy because we put in a lot of effort to play at this level. We want to play this way. It’s fantastic to do it.”
Martinez’s appreciation for the tougher side of the game is evident, noting that “soccer is always physical.” But it has become impossible to undermine his ability on that frontier.
He has won possession in his own defensive third 43 times this season, ranking him above any of his teammates, and third in the league overall in that metric.
Winning their duels so often has allowed those further up the field to be more determined in their roles:
“Then they can only think about scoring goals.” 
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