Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez called out the club’s technical director Jason Wilcox for not supporting under-fire Michael Carrick in the transfer market in an astonishing interview following the 2-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid .

United have won just two of their first nine games of the season, and are winless in their last five, after a summer in which the club spent £148m on upgrading their midfield, but in which they were also outspent by their closest rivals and failed to strengthen other key areas.

A fuming Martinez said the United players wanted the club to show more ambition to build a Premier League title challenge after finishing third last season and insisted others must take the blame for their poor start to the new campaign, pointing his finger at the “technical director” Wilcox and the club’s wider leadership.

“Really poor. Really poor. I have to control myself a lot,” Martinez told Prime Video after the defeat at Atletico . “But... sometimes it’s a reflection of the mirror of how is our club at the moment, you know? We did a fantastic season last season and now we expect more from the top, from up.

“You know, doing more, [signing] more players to compete because many, many teams, bring many players as well. And today, also, Atletico, they have an amazing team. And they deserved to win today.”

Asked whether he is saying that United do not possess a Champions League quality squad, Martinez said: “I expect more, honestly. I expect more [investment]. I expect more, 100 per cent. I expect more from our technical director [Jason Wilcox].

“We have to be honest and also as players we have to do more, but it is also important when you make a strong squad to be ready for this kind of night.

“I think last season, we did everything, we create a base to build an amazing team. But this is something, to be honest. And to prove something, you know? It's annoying, disappointing, coming here, and I'm not seeing my team trying to get an amazing result here. It’s disappointing.”