Manchester United have been told they need to consider selling Lisandro Martinez in the January window, with the player undermining Michael Carrick’s efforts to get their season back on track and with Steven Gerrard naming the Argentine as one of EIGHT players not good enough to play for the Red Devils.

Nine games without a win has cranked up the pressure on Carrick, who is very much the favourite to become the next Premier League boss to lose their job after a wretched run that leaves the club only outside the relegation places on goal difference.

For a club of Manchester United’s stature, that is simply not good enough.

Despite that, there are some mitigating circumstances for Carrick, who continues to wrestle with a squad beset by injuries and having seen the club settle for what increasingly looks like second-rate signings during the summer window.

As a result, United could do with some of their experienced heads shouldering some responsibility and helping the club navigate these current choppy waters.

However, having recently condemned the club for an apparent lack of ambition in the transfer market, Martinez is anything but flavour of the month at Old Trafford.

And having also seen red for two avoidable yellow cards against Chelsea on Saturday, the Argentine – a £57m signing from Ajax in summer 2022 – is fast becoming a problem for United.

Indeed, while TEAMtalk reported before either incident that the player was fighting to salvage his United career, three pundits have now already seen enough and believe the time is right to move him on, with one even suggesting the player makes his “sick”…

Lisandro Martinez ‘makes me sick’ and is not good enough for Man Utd

Assessing his performance during that defeat at Stamford Bridge, as the player picked up a second caution as he conceded a penalty, Freddie Ljungberg, speaking to Viaplay, stated: “I feel, when I look at that, I feel sorry for Michael Carrick.

“Everybody is slaughtering Carrick in the media and stuff, ‘Is he good enough as a coach, this and that’; the players are not doing it.

“How they behave, Martinez, doing what he did, I was there, and I felt a bit sick.

“I’ve seen this quite a few times when he does stupid things, doesn’t think about the team first. They let him down.”

Former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel echoed that view, adding: “He has cost so many goals, and that is one of the issues with Manchester United, that they’re leaking goals for fun.

“If you’re a big player, you played in a World Cup final, you just can’t perform like that, come out with statements like that [after the Atletico Madrid match], and then perform as he did against Chelsea.

“Sorry, for me that’s not good enough.”

Steven Gerrard also picked out Martinez as one of eight players not good enough for United, with Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire both deemed past it, Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba not of the quality required and Matheus Cunha also not good enough.

Benjamin Sesko was another one picked out for criticism, with Amad Diallo another who “blows hot and cold” but having “done nothing this season”.

Another former Liverpool man, Danny Murphy, was equally critical on Match of the Day, calling Martinez a ‘liability’.

“It’s getting that way. A player of that experience and quality, he knows better,” Murphy stated.

“There’s something obviously not right at the moment in his head; he’s in a different space, because you don’t see the poor performances for a player of that quality.

“There was the Dominic Solanke issue last week [against Tottenham], and then there was the interview, rant, whatever you want to call it, and then today, his performance in the second half was just nowhere near it.

“To go and do that after you’ve just had a yellow… I don’t know whether he’s thinking of getting away, whether he’s disgruntled at everything going on around the club, but he’s given Carrick a really big dilemma now.

“When he’s served the suspension, I think it’s unlikely that Michael, if he’s still the manager, is going to put him back in.”