![\"Lisandro](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023c975-614.jpg\"\/)
\nLisandro Martinez up against Erling Haaland during the recent Manchester derby<\/p>\n
Paul Scholes has acknowledged his words about Lisandro Martinez could have been chosen better but has refused to apologise to the Manchester United defender.<\/p>\n
Scholes and former United team-mate Nicky Butt made headlines on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast earlier when they suggested Manchester City forward Erling Haaland would pick up and run with Martinez due to their size difference.<\/p>\n
It sparked a backlash from Martinez after Man United’s 2-0 win over City when he called on Scholes to speak to him face-to-face. Even though the ex-England midfielder and Butt addressed their comments earlier this week, Scholes again discussed the incident on Sky Bet\u2019s The Overlap Fan Debate.<\/p>\n
“I didn\u2019t realise I had so many Argentinian friends,” Scholes joked.<\/p>\n
“Look, what we said probably wasn\u2019t great when you look back.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m not apologising for it. The thing we were trying to say was what we thought and still is, physically, it\u2019s a mismatch, but the way we described probably it wasn\u2019t great and probably shouldn\u2019t have done that.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s had one good game though. I hope to God he proves me wrong, but look at the week before against Brighton and Danny Welbeck.<\/p>\n
“Look at the week before that against Burnley. He gave the goal away against Burnley.<\/p>\n
“We probably worded it not in a great way and I hope he proves me wrong. He had a great game against City, he was brilliant and we have got to see that now again for the rest of the season.”<\/p>\n
\nLisandro Martinez up against Erling Haaland during the recent Manchester derby<\/p>\n
Pushed on his words carrying greater weight due to his standing as a player at Old Trafford, Scholes reflected: “There has been a lot of backlash to it and toxicity is the word that you use, and a lot of people have labelled that at me and Nicky for the last few days.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not something we like doing. We obviously want to see the team winning every single week.<\/p>\n
“I think it\u2019s more so now than it ever has been that people are speaking their mind and you\u2019ve got to deal with it.”<\/p>\n
Scholes did predict old team-mate Michael Carrick would be in the running for the job on a longer-term basis if he can get United in the top-four.<\/p>\n
“He didn\u2019t do a lot that was unexpected and he got a little bit lucky he had a couple of players back from the African Cup of Nations, which made a difference,” Scholes added.<\/p>\n
“Harry Maguire, I thought he was good next to Martinez as well, but the trouble is\u2026now, you almost have a rod for your own back. If he does really well until the end of the season like Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer), United fans will demand it.<\/p>\n
“What will they need to do for the United fans to demand him staying for next year? Now, I don\u2019t think it should happen and will they learn their lesson with the Ole thing? Will they be a bit scarred but you know what it\u2019s like if he gets second or third.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Scholes has acknowledged his words about Lisandro Martinez could have been chosen better but has refused to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-260012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}