'ACTIONS ARE MUCH STRONGER THAN WORDS' - Craig Burley on Lisandro's Martinez's comments ✍️ | ESPN FC
Craig Burley and others on Lisandro Martinez's statement: actions speak louder than words, Manchester United's recruitment is poor
The video discusses Lisandro Martinez's clarifying statement after his post-match comments. The panel says the statement was likely club-driven, that publicly criticizing the squad damages dressing-room relationships, and that Manchester United have spent heavily but recruited poorly; Craig Burley also argues Martinez has not performed well enough to criticize and may be angling for an exit.
- Player statements do not mean much, actions are much stronger than words — He says players should own what they said and get on with it instead of issuing more statements; he can take or leave these statements.
- Lisandro Martinez's clarifying statement was not self-generated but the result of Manchester United pressure — He suspects the club told Martinez to backtrack or explain his previous comments to protect the club's image; he does not believe Martinez simply slept on it and matured.
- The club did have him issue a statement to correct things, but the damage was already done — He says someone at the club spoke to him this morning and had him issue a statement correcting some comments; another statement only makes him explain more, and it would be better to stay quiet or say one sentence, which would avoid unnecessary problems for the manager.
- Social media pressure makes players feel they must speak up and justify themselves, but that is unnecessary — He says social media is aggressive toward players, coaches and clubs, so players feel they need to explain themselves; Martinez should first play better than he did yesterday and apologize to his teammates on the training field.
- Lisandro Martinez's public criticism of the club and squad will damage his relationships with teammates — He says criticizing the club for not having good enough players or a good enough squad is criticizing the players he plays with; Martinez is not playing well enough to do that, no player should publicly downgrade his teammates, and they will never forgive him.
- Manchester United have spent similar money to Arsenal in recent years but spent it badly — He says United tried to throw money at the problem, but they recruited and bought and sold badly; others spent more wisely on better players.
- Manchester United's poor recruitment was a joint effort, and Eric ten Hag had a share of it — He says no one should think the manager had no input; signings such as Antony and players coming from the Netherlands were clearly part of his call, so it was a joint failure to spend well.
- Lisandro Martinez is in no position to criticize because he is not doing his own job — He says a player's job starts with performing on the pitch, and Martinez is part of a group not doing that; he would be in a stronger position to criticize if he were a nine-out-of-ten player every week.
- Lisandro Martinez's comments may have been premeditated to get an exit from Manchester United — He senses Martinez knew what he was doing because his contract is coming up in about a year and the club is not going the way he wants; so there may be premeditation in the statement.
Stewart Robson, Jurgen Klinsmann, Ale Moreno and Craig Burley join Kay Murray to react to Lisandro Martinez backtracking his comments regarding Manchester United's lack of standards and winning. ✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/ ESPN ESPNFC
Transcript
Mhm. >> Lisandra Martinez has released a statement. >> Another one. >> We are going to bring that to you now. Said, "After the match, I spoke out of anger and frustration. When I talk about wanting more, I'm talking about the ambition we must all have as part of this club to keep growing, to become stronger, and to have everything we need to compete at the highest level. These are standards we must all hold ourselves to, starting with me. >> I know that first and foremost, it's us, the players, who have to deliver. and I put myself at the front of that responsibility. We need to demand even more of ourselves and work together to take Manchester United back to the top. I believe in my teammates, our manager, [laughter] and everyone working to help this club move forward. Maybe they did listen to what Jurgen said yesterday and calling him in at 6:00 a.m. this morning to to fix things. Craig, do >> you know one of the things that's changed about the game is, you know, the laws of the game, uh the speed of the game in a sense, how open games are at times, uh the structure at football clubs, set piece coaches, uh all these kind of things, uh social media and players making statements. It just >> in response to their own statements initially. >> It just sometimes you just say nothing, own up, own what you said, roll your sleeves up and get on with it. The these statements from players, I can I can take them and I can leave them. At the end of the day, actions are much stronger than words. And you know, I just I don't know. Oh, I just But I have to imagine I have to imagine that Manchester United, whoever within that front office went to Lisandro Martinez, said, "Come on, buddy. Let's sit down, have a conversation. In fact, it's not a conversation. This is a one-way conversation. We're going to tell you that you need to put out a statement where you're backtracking some of the things or you're explaining some of the things that you said yesterday because this is not the image of the club that we want to portray. This is something that you need to do. Backtrack your comments. explain your comments, explain what you meant, and it's in a way you're sort of apologizing to us without a public apology. I don't think this explanation from Alexander Martinez comes just because he felt it. He slept on it and as a mature player, he kind he woke up today and said, "Yeah, I think I can do better than this." I don't believe that comes from him. I believe the club got a hold of him and he then felt obligated to do it. >> That's very cynical from LA, isn't it, Jurgen? Or is he right? [sighs] >> No, I mean as as Alejandro said rightfully. I mean somebody in the in the club they had a talk this morning and and they made him basically come out with a a statement to correct a couple of things he said yesterday. Um but uh the damage was already done. You know now coming up with another statement and uh putting yourself again in a in a position where where you explain things as as a player. Um it's it's really better [clears throat] to just just be quiet. Be quiet, you know, or make just one one sentence and says, "I should have been quiet already yesterday." Uh and uh it's it's difficult for a manager on the inside then to kind of deal with these type of uh of yeah problems or or issues, you know, because they are so unnecessary. And uh but it's it's part of our environment today where social media is so so aggressive on on on players on coaches on on everybody on the clubs and uh they come more and more into a situation where they think they need to say something. They think they need to justify themselves for doing something wrong. Um and uh yeah and here and there then these kind of things happen you know and I hope [laughter] I hope they had a conversation this morning at six o'clock you know and and make it clear to him that you know first and foremost you've got to play football here and play better football than you did yesterday uh and then you know go out on the training field again and apologize to your teammates by the way >> uh what do you make of it all Robbo >> well that's the biggest problem the the relationship you have with your teammates if you're criticizing the club because they haven't got good enough players and the squad's not good enough and all this sort of stuff, you're criticizing the players you're playing with. And he's not playing well enough to do that sort of thing. No player should do it. They might think it, but you don't say it to publicly uh to sort of be be or downgrade your own teammates. It's the wrong thing to do. So, they're never going to forgive him. >> I think I read Sahity and I might be wrong. I stand corrected if I am wrong. Uh but Manchester United are in the ballpark of having spent similar amounts of money uh in recent history to Arsenal. in the last two or three years, I believe, uh, similar amounts of money, they've just they've just spent it badly. So, you know, we can talk about wanting to spend, not wanting to spend, all that. They've apparently spent similar amounts of money to the team that's the best team in England at the moment. So that's telling you that they've tried to throw money at it or a certain amount of money, but they have recruited badly. They've they've bought and sold badly. That's that's what they've done. Now, you can look at directors of football and sporting directors and and all that as as well as managers because managers have had an input. Eric Tenhack had an input into some of those players coming. Don't don't even think that he did not because you only had to look at them. you know, Josh Xerxi, Anthony, guys coming from from Holland were definitely part of his call. So, it was a joint effort about spending a lot of money and not spending it very well, whilst others have spent the money wiser on better players. That's also part of the issue. And the other point with Lzandro Martinez, I understand the frustration, but his job starts with doing his job. That's where it starts. and then everything else comes from there. At this moment in time, Landro Martinez is part of a group of players that is not doing their job on the field. So, I think you'd be in a stronger position to criticize if you were a nine out of 10 every week, which he is not. And I think there's also a sense that Landro Martinez knew what he was doing because Lando Martinez wants an out. He wants an out at Manchester United with his contract coming up in the next year or so because he sees the way it's going. It's not going the way he wants. So I think there there's some premeditation here. As much as this statement comes out, there's some premeditation from what Landro Martinez is trying to do. >> All right. [music]