“It’s awful defending”: Gary Neville picks out surprise United star as the reason for disappointing draw vs Burnley

Manchester United will be kicking themselves after they somehow failed to beat Burnley despite dominating almost every statistic. Frustrating night The Red Devils drew 2-2 at Turf Moor with The Clarets thanks to a Benjamin Sesko brace. It was Darren Fletcher’s first game as interim head coach following the sacking of Ruben Amorim at the start of the week. United did well to fight back after going a goal down in unfortunate circumstances when a cross was deflected into the net by Ayden Heaven. The Red Devils proceeded to create enough chances to win three games but only took two of them and allowed Burnley to equalise through Jaidon Anthony. Lisandro Martinez criticism The Argentinian has been a positive for United since returning from injury at the end of November. Nonetheless, he will be disappointed with his role in Anthony’s equaliser. He was easily beaten by a dummy from the goalscorer and stood well off the winger, which gave him plenty of space to fire an unstoppable effort past Senne Lammens in goal. Speaking on Sky Sports, pundit Gary Neville was also less than impressed with Martinez’s effort. Neville stated, “it’s a beautiful strike from Jaidon Anthony. It’s come out of nowhere when Man Utd were well on top.” United had an impressive start to the second half with two goals and plenty of chances, with good defensive work but Burnley were still able to respond.” He then honed in on Martinez, claiming, “I’m not really sure what Lisandro Martinez is doing, it’s awful defending, but take nothing away from Anthony. He concentrates and he hits it well and it’s past Lammens in a shot.” With tough games against Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup, and with the league’s top two in Manchester City and Arsenal coming up at the end of the month, Martinez and the defence will need to be a lot more focused than they were last night. Lisandro Martinez vs. Burnley PlayerLisandro Martinez Goals0 Expected goals (xG)0.01 Assists0 Expected assists (xA)0.04 Def. contributions3 Tackles (won)0 (0) Interceptions0 Clearances1 Blocked shots2 Recoveries6 Ground duels (won)7 (4) Aerial duels (won)2 (2) Fouls2 Dribbled past0 Key passes0 Crosses (accurate)0 (0) Accurate passes64/68 (94%) Passes in opposition half (acc.)31/35 (89%) Passes in own half (acc.)33/33 (100%) Long balls (accurate)6/9 (67%) Touches80 Dribbles (successful)4 (4) Possession lost5 Total shots1 Shots on target0 Shots blocked0 Source: Sofascore Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social . Alex Browne Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Alex has a Master’s degree from Queen’s University Belfast and La Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain. Having lived in the country since 2011, Alex is The Peoples Person’s Spanish football expert and is fluent in both Spanish and Catalan. He dreams of witnessing a United captain triumphantly hoisting the Premier League and Champions League trophy in the air once more.