Manchester United's newest defensive recruit Lisandro Martinez put in a faultless display during his Old Trafford debut against La Liga side Rayo Vallecano in what was a hard fought 1-1 draw.
The Argentine's arrival and subsequent stellar showing could spell trouble for Red Devils captain Harry Maguire, whose own patchy form led to criticism last term. The England international endured arguably the worst individual form of his career to date, which in turn led to fan backlash.
Maguire was so out of sorts towards the tail-end of last season that interim manager Ralf Rangnick made the decision to take his captain out of the firing line and drop him for a few fixtures, including games away from at home at Arsenal and Brighton.
Combine that with the fact Martinez has come in and immediately looked so assured when playing alongside ex-Real Madrid man Raphael Varane and Maguire could be left to sweat over how much game time he'll actually enjoy next campaign.
Playing in front of the Old Trafford faithful for the first time as a United player, Martinez ensured that both his combative defensive prowess and incredible technical ability was on full display. The ex-Ajax man won 100 per-cent of his tackles as well as a 100 per-cent success rate for every final third pass.
The standard of performance did not evade the watchful eye of his manager Erik ten Hag, who heaped praise on Martinez after the game. "I think he was a really good combination with Rafa [Varane]. They played really solid and it was great to see. The question is always how can he integrate but I think he integrated quite well into the team."
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Martinez is already well-versed in what United boss Ten Hag asks of his players from their shared time in Amsterdam, but the Red Devils manager has also spoken highly of Maguire publicly.
In the aftermath of Ten Hag's appointment, Maguire's status as captain was the subject of huge speculation and reports suggesting the defender could be stripped of the role as his new manager looks to explore potential alternatives.
However, the 52-year-old quickly quashed any talk that Maguire's captaincy was under threat. "Harry Maguire is the captain, of course, I have to get to know all the players and it takes time, but he is an established captain for a few years and he has achieved a lot of success, so I don't doubt about this issue."
Despite the public vote of confidence, if Martinez were to continue putting in displays like he did during the draw against Rayo Vallecano he will be near-impossible to leave out of the starting line-up.
