Lisandro Mart\u00ednez has moved quickly to calm the fallout from his explosive criticism of Manchester United, issuing a new statement after what he described as a \u201cpositive conversation\u201d with Michael Carrick and the club\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
The defender\u2019s earlier rant had placed his future under fresh scrutiny, particularly with his contract due to expire at the end of the season, although United retain the option to extend it by a further year. The initial reaction was severe, and Mart\u00ednez followed it with a lengthy social media post in which he expanded on his frustration and accepted responsibility for the team\u2019s failure to deliver on the pitch.<\/p>\n
Less than a day later, his Instagram story carried a far more conciliatory tone.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I met with the club\u2019s leadership and the manager,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt was a very positive conversation, where we were able to exchange views and speak openly about what happened after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows that I am a passionate person and that I live football with great intensity. The frustration of the defeat led me to express how I felt at a time and place that perhaps were not the right ones, and for that I want to apologize.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur club is at its best when we are all united, and I recognize that my words in that moment did not help with that. I know that every single person at Manchester United is doing everything possible to achieve our shared ambition: bringing the success that this club and its supporters deserve.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this situation now behind us, we are fully focused on winning together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new statement was clearly intended to restore unity after Mart\u00ednez\u2019s public criticism of the club\u2019s hierarchy. Even so, the underlying concerns have not disappeared. United\u2019s summer business was heavily weighted towards midfield, while defensive reinforcements were left out.<\/p>\n
That decision has been reflected on the pitch. United have conceded in all but one of their nine matches across all competitions this season, with their only clean sheet coming against Champions League debutants Sabah in September. Their midfield additions have also struggled to settle, while the side remain winless in their last five matches.<\/p>\n
A punishment for Mart\u00ednez would not have been a surprise, but with the matter apparently resolved, Carrick now has a decision to make over his selection for this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mart\u00ednez apologises after his rant, but United\u2019s deeper problems remain unresolved this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-21788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}