Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez have both been fleeting figures at Man Utd this season, but their World Cup challenge couldn’t be more different.
The case of Matthijs de Ligt has been a brilliant start off the blocks, but a mysterious back injury has seen him miss almost four months of action.
Lisandro Martinez has suffered from similar injury problems, but his issue has been more stop-start, which just makes it more frustrating.
However, despite both suffering from the same injury issue at Old Trafford, their World Cup challenge couldn’t be more different.
Lisandro Martinez pointing upwards for Manchester United.
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Matthijs de Ligt’s Netherlands challenge
Despite not playing for more than four months, De Ligt has actually played more minutes than Martinez, and played well, too.
He was on track to have a Player of the Season campaign before his injury, and it had prompted a recall to the Netherlands national team.
The problem is that Ronald Koeman seems to have some kind of doubts about De Ligt, because his international trips have never been kind to him.
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Koeman seems only too happy to throw him under the bus, and De Ligt can often find Man Utd as his safe space.
It always seems like he’s not just fighting other Dutch defenders for a spot in the team, but he’s fighting a losing battle against Koeman to convince him of his talents.
Now that he has gone missing with a long-term back injury, Koeman finally has the reason to ignore how well he was playing for Man Utd before his injury.
He is still expected back before the end of the season, but De Ligt’s World Cup dream looks more over than not, which is in contrast to Martinez.
Lisandro Martinez’s Argentine privilege
If De Ligt can do nothing right to convince Koeman, then Martinez can do no wrong to convince Lionel Scaloni that he should be on the plane for the World Cup.
Should Lisandro Martinez be an automatic starter for Man Utd? Whose place does he take?
Lisandro Martinez in the gym
Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
He has played fewer minutes than De Ligt, but Scaloni is so enamoured with his skill set and the leadership intangibles that he brings to the side that Martinez is untouchable.
Ironically, United would ideally have this situation the other way around for purely selfish reasons.
A good off-season for Martinez might help him put his injury troubles behind him, while a good World Cup campaign for De Ligt would have done wonders for his confidence and match fitness.
As it stands, they will have to make do with their injury-prone Argentine defender throwing his body on the line at the World Cup, and their rusty Dutch CB will watch on as an injury costs him a World Cup berth despite being in great form leading up to it.
Two similar problems at the club level, but two extremely different scenarios for their national teams, and United are stuck in a non-ideal position with both.
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