Lisandro Martinez is a spiky and confrontational character around Carrington, but the Man Utd defender has now turned his focus onto club chiefs.
Lisandro Martinez
Lisandro Martinez can bring and intensity to daily life at Carrington
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Speak to people around Carrington on a daily basis and they will tell you what a difference it makes when Lisandro Martinez is training with his Manchester United teammates.
That is something that the three full-time managers Martinez has worked with in just over four years at the club haven't been able to rely on often enough. He has had his share of injury issues since joining from Ajax in 2022.
Some of those have been self-inflicted on the pitch due to a combative and robust style that has earned him the nickname of the butcher. On Tuesday, he skewered his own bosses at Old Trafford.
Martinez brings intensity and honesty to United's training sessions. He has been popular with Erik ten Hag, Ruben Amorim and Michael Carrick because he demands high standards of everyone around him.
The 29-year-old doesn't shirk confrontation and he will call something out around Carrington if he believes it isn't being done properly. When he is in full training, observers and coaches notice the dial goes up in terms of the competitiveness of the sessions.
But those traits, so helpful in maintaining high standards and professionalism within the squad, are now being trained on his employers. An emotional, straight-talking and confrontational figure, Martinez has seen enough at United and can't hold his tongue any longer.
He was speaking from the heart and having invested the peak years of his career to the club, he is clearly frustrated at the lack of sustained progress being made. He has the support of many of his senior teammates with what he said on Tuesday night.
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But there might be other factors at play as well. Martinez is in the last year of the five-year contract he signed upon moving to Old Trafford. United have the option to extend his deal by 12 months, although Martinez's not-so-friendly fire might put them off doing so. For the player, that might be no bad thing. He reportedly considered his future during the summer.
At his best, Martinez's performances have warranted a new deal, but an inability to stay fit has prevented talks over improved terms from ever getting anywhere. In his first four seasons at the club, he started just 65 out of a possible 152 Premier League games.
He has been available so far this term, although his form has tailed off. That shouldn't be held against him when his comments on Tuesday are taken into account. Playing well isn't a prerequisite for taking a stand.
Ultimately, the traits that Martinez displayed in the bowels of the Metropolitano on Tuesday are the traits that made him so appealing to Ten Hag in 2022. He wanted to bring him with him from Ajax because he knew he would set standards and raise demands.
Ten Hag felt the squad he inherited lacked leaders prepared to have difficult conversations and to stand up to one another. He identified Martinez - and Casemiro - as antidotes to that.
His injuries may have been an issue, but Martinez has delivered off the pitch. With the clock ticking down on his United career, he has decided now is the time to go out in a blaze of glory and to tell everyone at the club what he really thinks.