Fighting spirit will help shortest Premier League centre-back make leap of faith

Manchester United new boy Lisandro Martinez will immediately become the shortest central defender in the Premier League after joining from Ajax.

Here, the PA news agency looks at how he compares.

The Argentina international stands at 5ft 9in (1.75m) – a clear inch shorter than any other regular centre-back in the top flight.

The closest comparison is a converted full-back, Chelsea’s 5ft 10in (1.78m) Cesar Azpilicueta, who has frequently played on the right of a back three in recent seasons with Reece James outside him as a wing-back.

Aaron Cresswell, shorter than Martinez at 5ft 7in (1.70m), was occasionally pressed into service at centre-back for West Ham last season but continued to operate overwhelmingly in his favoured left-back or wing-back position, playing the equivalent of around three full games in the middle.

Even including Cresswell, only 13 Premier League centre-backs are listed at under six feet tall.

At the other end of the scale, Leicester’s Jannik Vestergaard pips Newcastle’s Dan Burn to the honour of being the tallest centre-back in the Premier League.

While both players stand at around 6ft 6in, Vestergaard is listed on the Premier League website at 1.99m compared to 1.98m for Burn. That makes Vestergaard 24cm, or around nine and a half inches, taller than Martinez.

Next up at 1.96m (6ft 5in) are Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings, Brentford pair Kristoffer Ajer and Charlie Goode, Fulham’s Tosin Adarabioyo and Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite, with the latter spending the season on loan at PSV Eindhoven.

Martinez’s arrival means the average height of United’s centre-backs is 186.5cm, or just over 6ft 1in. Harry Maguire is tallest at 194cm (6ft 4in), Raphael Varane 191cm, Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof both 187cm