Manchester United have not won since 10 September, and Lisandro Martínez blamed the board after a 2-0 defeat in Madrid

Manchester United were behind before most people had settled into their seats at the Metropolitano. Alex Baena ran in behind Diogo Dalot onto a simple ball over the top and squared it for Pablo Barrios, whose shot went under Ayden Heaven and in. That was inside the first minute. Ademola Lookman added a second in the 79th, five minutes after Leny Yoro had been sent off, and Atlético Madrid won 2-0.

The result was not the loudest thing to come out of Madrid on Tuesday night. That was Lisandro Martínez, who went in front of the cameras afterwards and pointed at the people running the club.

Martínez looks upstairs

“We had a fantastic season last season, and now we expect more from the top,” Martínez told Amazon Prime. Asked whether he had expected more investment in the summer, he said yes, 100 per cent, and then named the man he meant. “I expect more from our technical director,” he said, a reference to Jason Wilcox.

He did not let the players off. He said they had to do more too. But he made it clear where he thought the rest of the blame sat. “It is easy to say the coach, it is easy to say the players, but also we have to see other areas,” he said. Of the club’s habit of sacking managers, he added: “You can’t keep changing, changing, changing the manager. What about other areas?”

Sir Jim Ratcliffe was in the stand, sitting next to chief executive Omar Berrada. Wayne Rooney, working for the broadcaster, said Martínez had gone too far. “Something like that will rip that dressing room apart,” he said.

Michael Carrick said he had not seen the interview. “Straight after a game for me is not the time to talk about that interview because I haven’t seen it, so I can’t really comment on that,” he said. Asked whether he would speak to the defender, he said he needed to find out more first.

Better than Saturday, still beaten

The awkward part for Carrick is that this was a better United performance than the 1-1 draw with Tottenham at the weekend. He made five changes, gave Carlos Baleba his first start since the summer move from Brighton and moved Bruno Fernandes to the right. They had chances. Bryan Mbeumo missed two good ones before half-time, and Marcus Rashford failed to connect with a lofted pass from Martínez.

Fernandes lifted a shot over Jan Oblak and just wide after the break and later hit the bar. Atlético hit the woodwork twice themselves, through an Alejandro Grimaldo free-kick and a Julián Álvarez effort. Then Yoro brought down the substitute Jonathan David as the last man, and after a VAR review he was sent off. Lookman finished it from the rebound after Senne Lammens had saved from David.

United have now gone five games without a win. The last one was the 4-0 against Sabah at Old Trafford on 10 September. For Atlético, who lost 2-1 at Liverpool on the opening night, these are their first Champions League points of the season.

Leeds next, and a long week

United go to Elland Road on Sunday, 18 October, with kick-off at 6:30pm IST. On another night, a performance like this might have bought Carrick some patience. I am not sure it does now. Martínez has turned a bad week into a story about the boardroom, and it is Carrick who will be asked about it before Leeds, not the people Martínez was talking about.

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