Lisandro Martinez is right about Jason Wilcox

I'll be honest with you, when I saw Lisandro Martinez's interview after the game in Madrid last night, my first thought wasn't "he shouldn't have said that". It was "finally, somebody's said it".

What he actually said

For anyone who missed it, Martinez didn't go after the manager or his team-mates. He was asked about where it's going wrong, and he said he expected more from the people above the dressing room, and when he was pushed on it he got specific. "I expect more from our technical director," he said, and that's Jason Wilcox, the man in charge of building this squad. When he was asked about Carrick, he said "He does his best", and he made the point that it's easy to blame the coach and the players while other areas of the club get let off.

You can say what you want about whether a player should be doing that on camera straight after a defeat, and plenty of people have, but I don't think he was wrong. I'd love to know what's been said at Carrington today.

Why it's landed

The thing is, Martinez isn't saying anything that fans haven't been saying for months. According to the Guardian, Wilcox oversaw around £155 million of spending in the last window, and it went on three midfielders: Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Baleba. Three midfielders, when anyone who watches us every week can see the problems are all over the pitch. We can't keep a clean sheet, we can't score enough goals, and what we've got is three new central midfielders.

The same report says the squad were puzzled by that recruitment as well, and that's the bit that should really worry people upstairs. When the players can see the plan doesn't add up, you've got a problem that no manager is going to fix on his own.

The bigger picture

We've been here before, haven't we? Change the manager, blame the manager, change him again. Martinez basically said that himself, and he's right. Every few seasons we rip it up and start again in the dugout while the people who pick the players and spend the money carry on as if none of it is anything to do with them.

I'm not daft, either. The Guardian also points out that Martinez is out of contract next summer, so there might be a bit of self-interest in this. But it doesn't make him wrong, it just means he's got less to lose by saying it.

If you want the full misery from last night, here's my reaction to the Atlético defeat, and here's the Spurs draw before it.

Dan's Verdict: Martinez might have picked the wrong moment, but he picked the right target, and the club should be listening rather than getting mithered about who said it.

Was Martinez right to go public, or should that have stayed in the dressing room?