Jamie Redknapp labelled Lisandro Martinez a ‘little boy’ after his role in Nottingham Forest’s opening goal against Manchester United.
Nikola Milenkovic gave Forest a shock lead inside two minutes in Saturday’s evening kick-off with United undone on a set piece again.
In a wild second-half littered with more errors, Forest scored twice to leave with all three points in a 3-2 win.
Ruben Amorim’s side lost at Arsenal on Wednesday with both the Gunners’ goals coming from corner kicks with Jurrien Timber and William Saliba getting on the score sheet.
Martinez, back in the side after serving a suspension at the Emirates, was tasked with marking Milenkovic but was helpless as the Serbian towered over him to head home.
Assessing the incident at half-time, Redknapp told Sky Sports: ‘He has to be stronger there. He’s like a little boy there. He just gets bullied. It’s a mismatch, he is trying to block him and its a towering header.’
Former United defender Phil Jones, alongside Redknapp on punditry duty, was also unimpressed with Martinez’s decision-making, also identifying Diogo Dalot as another at fault for the game’s opener.
‘It is a great header, a bullet of a header. But you sense vulnerability from set pieces,’ Jones said.
‘Martinez is almost too fixated on the man. He’s got the blocking job, he’s too square and is watching the man rather than the ball. Diogo Dalot takes a couple of steps towards the ball and gets caught underneath it. He almost gets sucked underneath the ball.’
United’s frailties were exposed again in the second-half with Andre Onana letting Morgan Gibb-White’s shot squirm through him minutes after the restart.
Chris Wood added another for the visitors after 54 minutes in a bizarre goal, with his header looping over Onana and into the back of the net despite being well-placed on the back post to deal with the danger.
Bruno Fernandes pulled one back for the hosts but they were unable to summon an equaliser.