Being short never mattered to Fabio Cannavaro so why does it matter for Lisandro Martinez?
This one is for all the short kings out there.
Short centre-backs are a guilty pleasure of mine. To reach the highest level (pun not intentional) they not only have to work harder than their peers, but smarter as well.
Carlos Puyol, Franco Baresi, Ivan Cordoba, Javier Mascherano, while he was at Barcelona, are just a few who have taken the road less travelled and succeeded.
They are at a disadvantage from day one and it seemingly instills a mentality in them to overcome hardships which is invaluable in a football team. A fighting spirit.
And that’s what first drew me to Lisandro Martinez.
Martinez joined Ajax in 2019 and though he started out as a defensive midfielder that saw limited minutes under Erik ten Hag, he eventually became starting centre-back at the Dutch club.
The defender formed a formidable partnership with fellow short-king Jurrien Timber, who is 5’10, and together they secured the third league title of the Ten Hag era.
Now Martinez wants to take the next step in his career. He looks set to leave Ajax to join a Premier League club this summer according to reports in the Netherlands.
Whether he will reunite with Ten Hag at Old Trafford or join Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal revolution is yet to be decided, but where he ends up is not the main topic of conversation surrounding the Argentinian centre-back.
The discussion isn’t even centred around whether he would be able to make the step up from the Eredivisie, nor whether €50m could be considered too steep in the current market (though both of these are valid questions to raise).
No, what many Premier League fans are focused on is Martinez’s height.
Martinez is 5’9 (some sites have it listed as 5’10 but the point is he is short)1 and because of this many believe that he completely incapable of playing as a CB in the Premier League. This is despite occupying that spot for Ajax in the Eredivisie and Champions League last year and winning the club’s Player of the Year in the process.
But why do we feel that centre-backs, in general, need to be tall? We’ve already established it can be done. Is it because the Premier League legends that stick out to us in this position were aerially dominant and physically imposing?
While musing on this thought my mind kept coming back to one name; Fabio Cannavaro.
While Franz Beckenbauer and Matthias Sammer both technically count, even though they played the libero role which fused a number of midfield duties with defence, Cannavaro is the only ‘pure’ defender to win the Balon d’Or.
He received the award in 2006 after being a key member of an Italy side that had just won the World Cup and a Juventus side that won the Scudetto (though they would later be stripped of this due to the Calciopoli scandal, but let’s just gloss over that for now).
And he did it while standing at the same height as Martinez, 5’9 (well technically 1cm taller).
Like Martinez, Cannavaro was exceptional in the air despite his small stature due to his ability to intelligently time his jumps to either win the ball or disrupt his opponent enough that they could not effectively direct their headers.
In the Eredivisie last season, Martinez won 3.7 aerial duels p/90 (5.3 attempted) at a success rate of 69.8%. By comparison, Pau Torres, a much taller defender standing a 6’3 won 1.8 aerial duels p/90 (3.1 attempted) at a success rate of 58.1% in La Liga.
It’s not all about height, it’s about how you approach the situation.
Cannavaro realised he was at a disadvantage physically while the ball was on the ground as well, so instead used clever positioning and an exceptional football IQ to read the game and cut out chances.
When he faced Ronaldo (R9 not Cristiano) he knew that he could not ‘defend’ the Brazillian dynamo, but instead sought to contain him and force him into positions where he was less effective.
He spoke about the experience in a piece for The Player’s Tribune, but in the same article Cannavaro spoke about what he felt is the most important trait for a defender:
“And the one ingredient you need? It's not height, or speed or even ball skills. You must have confidence.
“I'm not sure where I got that sense of confidence, but it was certainly there on the day I tackled Maradona. And I tried to build upon it for the rest of my career. At Napoli, at Parma, at Inter Milan, at Juventus.
“Honestly, it wasn't until July 9, 2006 that I truly felt confident as a defender … when I lifted up the World Cup and reporters yelled out to us: "Campioni del mondo! Campioni del mondo! Campioni del mondo! Campioni del mondo!"
“As a defender, you can be many shapes and sizes. You can be short and fast. Or you can be tall and jump high. It doesn't matter. The only necessity is that you are confident when you take the pitch - because every week there is a new challenge.”
Martinez has this confidence as well, however, he seems to have a different approach. The CB has stated in the past that his personal hero is Carlos Tevez and he has applied the striker’s ‘bulldog-like approach’ to his style of defending.
His reduced height allows him to be more agile and he tackles tenaciously to dispossess the opposition. His cleaving style earned him the nickname of ‘The Butcher’ and in an interview in 2021, Martinez said of tag:
“In Argentina I never hear that nickname, but I know that the fans here call me that. I like that and see it as a compliment. I never give up and always go into battle full of struggle. That’s how I am.”
But I am doing exactly what I said fans were doing and getting caught up on his height (5’9 for anyone who forgot). There is so much more that both Martinez and Cannavaro can offer.
Cannavaro was comfortable on the ball and able to distribute from the back, and Martinez is no different. Both Ten Hag and Arteta want the defender for his ability to progress the ball from the back reliably and effectively.
According to WyScout, Martinez averaged 14.4 progressive passes per 90 in all competitions last season and had a pass accuracy of 93%, showing how in possession he is invaluable. Add in the cherry on top that he is a left-footed defender and it makes sense why both managers see him as a crucial addition to their back lines.
But of course, there is the elephant in the room.
Cannavaro may have won the World Cup with Italy, multiple domestic trophies with Parma (and some illegal ones with Juventus) and La Liga twice with Real Madrid, while Martinez has won league titles with Ajax… but they haven’t done it in the Premier League.
There seems to be a general consensus from Premier League fans that the English competition is ‘built different’ and it is hard for new signings to ‘keep up with the physicality’. This is then consistently the rebuke when you bring up a player’s achievements in any other league.
Firstly I think that’s an overstatement, Daley Blind played in both a three and a two for United during his time with the club and never particularly seemed overwhelmed despite being smaller than six feet and also having a slight frame.
Ben White and Nathan Ake are sub-six foot as well and they both have also played for top-six sides in a two, and if you look to teams that play 3-at-the-back, Cesar Azpilicueta has played significant minutes there for Chelsea.
But I feel the particular issue with Martinez is that he’s not just short, he is very short, and of course fans are worried that he will be dominated in the air by forwards like Calvert-Lewin and Chris Wood (the classic archetype of a Premier League target man).
Though when we think about the importance of aerial duels in the grand scheme of things, Kees van Hemmen made a good point on Twitter:
Of course, the consideration is that the goalkeeper and his fellow centre-back will have to help him in more difficult match-ups (United fans likely quivered in their boots when I said that given David de Gea’s 3.2% of crosses stopped), but as I said before, he doesn’t have to win the duel just disrupt the attacker’s flow.
But more importantly, the assumption that Martinez wouldn’t work at centre-back is mostly theoretical.
Short centre-backs at the top level are few and far between and they are less common in the Premier League, so there are fewer examples to point to. But just because it is not the norm, does not mean it definitively won’t work.
The game of football has shifted dramatically over the past 10 years, and now might be the perfect conditions for a short centre-back to make a name for himself, especially when the rest of his game is exceptional.
For example, rules were changed to allow defenders to enter their own box during a goal kick and now we often see GKs employing a shorter kick to allow the team to build up from the back, rather than just punting it long.
High crosses are also not the only types of crosses. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side are famed for driving to the byline and then pulling it back along the ground, which Martinez would thrive at defending.
You’ve also got to consider that both teams that he has been linked with are hoping to play a possession-based game with a high line. And if Martinez is tasked with defending proactively much higher up the pitch, then he is less likely to face crosses than if he was playing for a team that is besieged in their own box.
Yes, you will still get those games where the opposition throws a 6’3’ striker at you like a battering ram, but the majority of defenders have problems in those scenarios and if it’s going to be an issue, you would think that his manager may have a plan to counter it.
There’s a lot to like about Martinez’s game, just like there was a lot to like about Cannavaro and although he is likely to never reach the heights (pun again not intentional) of the Italian, Arsenal or United are getting a fantastic player and one they should definitely play at centre-back.
Heights are notoriously inaccurate online, I worked off FBref, Google and the Premier League website for these numbers but I understand that some may not be correct and that makes it hard when you’re trying to make a point about being a certain height.