Erik ten Hag's £55m gamble has just confirmed why he wanted him at Manchester United

Of the five permanent additions Erik ten Hag made to his Manchester United squad last summer, it was the signing of Lisandro Martinez that felt like the biggest gamble.

The centre-back had spent three seasons working with Ten Hag at Ajax, establishing himself as one of the best defenders in the Eredivisie, inspired by his no-nonsense and determined style of play. But despite lapping up plenty of plaudits in the Netherlands, no shortage of United supporters had their reservations about the club deciding to invest north of £50million in a player that had never stepped foot inside one of Europe's top five leagues.

Many feared that he would be the second coming of Marcos Rojo; a signing with disaster written all over it from the start. His height was immediately labelled a concern and United's recent record of having more misses than hits in the transfer market meant it felt like too big a gamble at such an important juncture in their recent history.

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But after being heavily criticised in the immediate aftermath of United's embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Brentford in just his second competitive appearance for the club, it was a shove on Mohamed Salah nine days later that marked the moment when everything changed for the 25-year-old. After deliberately clipping the Liverpool forward during United's much-needed 2-1 win over the Merseysiders last August, he immediately got back to his feet and barged into the Egyptian.

It was a friendly way of making his presence known to one of the Premier League's most decorated attackers over the last few years.

That win over Liverpool, too, also marked the night when Martinez was stationed at centre-back alongside