Lisandro Martinez has been criticised for letting everyone connected to Manchester United down after he was sent off during the club's 2-0 defeat to Chelsea. The defender received two yellow cards as United's winning run extended to nine games in all competitions.
Two Bookings Prove Costly
Martinez was first booked for kicking out at Rogers and then received a second yellow card for a needless arm into the face of Wesley Fofana. TNT Sports commentator Ally McCoist criticised the Argentine's defending, saying: "Ridiculous defending, you're just jumping into him, that's a penalty. Somebody explain to me why that's not a penalty?"
Shortly after the decision, McCoist added: "It's unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable. He runs right across, look, absolutely crazy, crazy. He's let everybody down, teammates, everything."
Pundits Question Martinez's Future
Joe Cole, also on punditry duty, said: "You know the players' mindsets, he's been embarrassed by Rogers, I think this'll be given. We know how he sees the club and the situation, it's rash. We're talking about the action, it's rash, crazy."
McCoist then added: "Exactly who I'm thinking about right now, Michael Carrick. Look at that. He can't look at him and nor should he. He's not looked at him and nor should he." Cole then said: "The new Manchester United, Martinez has ran his course. Far too often in a Man United shirt, it happens, he's at the scene of the crime too often, at fault too often and I think that's his time done."
Carrick Defends Martinez
However, Carrick, speaking post-match, said he did not feel let down by Martinez. "There is a lot of emotion, we're a great football club, and we want to win football matches," the United boss said.
"The supporters come, make a lot of effort, pay a lot of money to watch us play. You can see from today the boys had the game in the right place and things have gone against us. Things have gone against us, and gone against us in a big way. Unravelled quickly. A lot of emotion right now. We have got to move forward and take the things that worked for us today. A lot of the good things, especially in the first half and use that moving forward."
On the defeat, Carrick said: "Yes, that's exactly what it was. You know it was as good as we've played for some time in the first half, coming here and playing that way. Looking so dangerous and having chances and opportunities, and we could have created more chances with the spaces that we opened up. So, going in at half-time, there's a positive feeling but a little bit of disappointment, knowing that we hadn't capitalised on such a good performance. Then, the second half just kind of got away from us, the goal and then, after that, it kind of became a difficult afternoon really."
