Manchester United will take it steady with Lisandro Martinez’s return from knee surgery even though head coach Ruben Amorim is delighted to have the combative defender back in training again.
The Argentine centre-back has been out since February after suffering a cruciate ligament injury in the home defeat by Crystal Palace.
It was the fourth significant injury of the 27-year-old’s time at United, following on from knee trouble and two major foot problems that have restricted Martinez to 52 Premier League starts, even though he moved from Ajax in the summer of 2022.
That history is one of the reasons why Amorim will not be giving in to the player’s desire for an immediate return for the trip to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, 1 November.
“He wants to go to this one,” said the United boss. “He’s not going to this one, he is going to take time.
“He has started training with us but we had to change some things in the exercise for him so he’s going to get better slowly.”
Nevertheless, after previously saying his squad was “starved” of leaders, having another of his six-man leadership group back around the main squad will be a significant positive for the United boss.
“He gives us that edge in every training session,” added Amorim. “That is also really good for us.”
Amorim plays down Dyche’s 4-4-2 jibe
The trip to the City Ground represents the first time Amorim has come up against Sean Dyche since the new Forest boss claimed, earlier in 2025, he would have won more games at United than the former Sporting boss just by using a conventional 4-4-2 formation.
In a podcast conversation with Sam Allardyce, Dyche concurred Amorim had been lucky to survive the wretched form that resulted in United finishing 15th in the Premier League last season.
“They keep talking about the philosophy but it isn’t working,” said Dyche, at the point where United had taken 27 points from 28 league games.
“I bet I could win more games just by going to 4-4-2. I might be wrong because in the summer they might bring in three big hitters. But it is Man United. You wouldn’t normally survive in that situation.”
When those comments were put to Amorim in his press conference looking ahead to the Forest game, the 40-year-old said he understood why Dyche had said it.
“Maybe it’s true if we play 4-4-2 we would have won more games but I always said I have a way of playing that is going to take a while,” he countered.
“But then I can look at Sean Dyche as a manager and as a pundit.
“If you are a pundit and you don’t say very strong things, I don’t want to watch you. I’m the same.
“I can understand it’s a completely different job. I know that Sean Dyche is really smart and he knows how to play the game.”
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