Gary Neville is in no doubt that there was a ‘tear up’ in the Manchester United dressing room after Lisandro Martinez’s explosive comments, but that is probably a good thing.
Martinez grabbed the headlines after a 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last week, hitting out at the club’s hierarchy.
The Argentina international suggested recruitment was not good enough and the players and manager have been let down as the squad is not strong enough to compete at the top level.
Winger Amad Diallo also chimed in with another controversial take, although it was not clear who his comment was aimed at when he posted on Snapchat: ‘F*****g disgrace I have no words.’
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Manchester United responded with a 1-1 draw at Leeds United on Sunday, in a performance which exhibited more fight and energy than previous displays.
Neville reckons there have been clashes in the dressing room and that is no bad thing as the players look more fired up than they did before Martinez and Diallo ‘went rogue.’
‘Today’s a stepping stone, but we cant get carried away. It’s because of what we thought might happen, but I actually thought they’d win today. I thought there would be a response,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast after the draw at Elland Road.
‘I think that dressing room has definitely had a tear up, they’ve had a tear up and they’ve had a meeting. 100 per cent. There’s no way that they’ve not dealt with that Martinez issue.
‘If you think about Amad Diallo’s Snapchat: “You’re a f***ing disgrace!” That’s at his teammate, so they’re obviously launching at each other. Martinez has gone rogue, but so has Amad.
‘I think that’s what’s happening here, that’s the dynamic and that can only be a good thing for Michael Carrick, because you’re looking at it and thinking it needs something, it needs somebody to starting fighting, it needs a rocket up it.
‘Maybe that’s the turning point. Maybe Lisandro Martinez has done the best motivational speech that he’s ever done for Manchester United on Tuesday night, maybe he’s done them a favour.’
Speaking ahead of the Leeds game, Michael Carrick said he was glad to see his players care about the situation at the club, but suggested public outbursts are not the correct course of action.
‘It’s a situation where there are ways of doing it, and in one way, it shows the boys care an awful lot,’ said the Red Devils manager. ‘But yeah, of course, there are ways of doing it as part of learning a little bit, of showing that emotion.
‘And like I’ve just said, I think we’ve just got to show that in the right manner and channel it in the right manner.
‘I understand emotion at times. I think part of what we ask for, we ask for passion, we ask for emotion, we ask for fire, and we ask for players to care.
‘There’s a way of doing that, and that’s already been acknowledged, but we need to carry that intensity and that willingness and that togetherness and that spirit and everything that else you can bring with that.
‘As a group, we need to use it, and we’ve got to use it in the right way.’