Lisandro Martinez says £100m Manchester United duo 'have to do better'
Man Utd somehow defeated Fulham 1-0 in the Premier League on Sunday night with just one shot on target.
Lisandro Martinez admits Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee both 'have to do better' after Manchester United managed just one shot on target in their 1-0 win over Fulham.
The Argentine defender proved to be the matchwinner at Craven Cottage when his ambitious effort took a deflection to secure all three points for his side. Hojlund and Zirkzee didn't manage a single effort on target between them during the match and it is now nine matches since a striker scored a goal for United across all competitions. Hojlund has scored just seven goals in 28 games and Zirkzee has only netted four in 33 appearances.
United invested an initial £64 million in Hojlund two years ago, while they spent a further £36.5 million on Zirkzee last summer. The du were both signed by former manager Erik ten Hag and new head coach Ruben Amorim wants to add another forward to his side this month.
Speaking after the win over Fulham, defender Martinez put their struggles in front of goal down to a combination of a lack of service to their strikers and asked for improvement from their two stars in attack. "We take the responsibility, and I think we played many long balls to them and for them it’s really tough, they fight against two centre-backs and the centre-backs here in the Premier League are really difficult to win something. But they have to do better as well. They are really good players but we have to contribute more and put them in better space or place on the pitch, we have to find them in the right places and dangerous places to make them score."
United climbed to 12th in the Premier League after their weekend win over Fulham and will hope to make it three wins in a row when they face FCSB in the Europa League later this week. Martinez was delighted to secure three points but is not getting carried away in a season where they have lacked consistency. He added: “Now we have to be humble, we have to keep this momentum for sure yes. It’s an amazing feeling when you win, but we have to be humble. We win today, we celebrate today, tomorrow we think of the next game. We’re ok, I’m not going to talk about confidence and that kind of thing, I don’t want to make something wrong, but we’re happy and for sure when you win the confidence goes up for sure. It’s good for us to get the three points.”