Lisandro Mart\u00ednez directly addressed criticism from Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt after Manchester United\u2019s spirited performance at Old Trafford. The Argentina centre back, nicknamed ‘The Butcher’, was targeted on a podcast when the former players suggested he could be picked up and treated like a “little toddler” by Erling Haaland. Mart\u00ednez insisted the remarks made on air did not reflect what he encounters in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, he can say whatever he wants,\u201d Martinez said of Scholes. \u201cI told him already, if he wants to say something to me, he can come to wherever he wants. To my house, wherever. I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez underlined his frustration at the gulf between commentary delivered on television or podcasts and the reality at the ground. \u201cI think for me, I respect the relations [ex-players] when they want to help the club because everyone can talk on the television,\u201d Mart\u00ednez said. \u201c… but when you see [them] here face to face, no one says anything in your face.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I don\u2019t really care what they say. I just put the focus on my performance, the performance of the team and I give everything to this club until my last day.\u201d<\/p>\n
His remarks followed a match in which Mart\u00ednez was credited with keeping Haaland largely at bay; Haaland recorded an xG of 0.13 and managed 14 touches in 80 minutes before being withdrawn by Pep Guardiola. United\u2019s display was strong enough to surprise observers connected to both clubs, and Guardiola reflected on the difference in intensity. \u201cThey had something we did not have. I\u2019ve come many times here. But today we were not the level required to win these types of games,\u201d the manager said. \u201cThey have a new manager, and they had the energy in a derby that we didn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exchange highlights growing tension between current United players and some ex-players in broadcast media during the 2025\u201326 campaign, with Mart\u00ednez choosing to let his performance on the pitch answer the criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martinez rejects Scholes and Butt podcast jibes, praises team after Old Trafford win in 2025\/26. xG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1348],"tags":[1162,1304,1393],"class_list":["post-6041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-manchester-united-news","tag-analytics","tag-benching","tag-centre-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}