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Manchester United's Lisandro Martinez, left, challenges for the ball with Manchester City's Erling Haaland during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester, England, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez hit back at pundits which included Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt who had predicted that the Argentinian defender’s diminutive stature would lead to Manchester City’s Erling Haaland manhandling him in the derby on Saturday. That wasn’t the case on the day of the match as Martinez expertly marshalled Haaland with the City attacker failing to score as United went on to win the match 2-0.
Scholes, a United legend in his own right, had taken a dig at Martinez ahead of the derby, saying Haaland would “throw him in the net” after scoring while Butt had said that the Norweigian striker would “pick Martinez up and run with him” and treat him like a “little toddler.” The comments were made on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast.
“Honestly, he can say whatever he wants. I told him already, if he wants to say something to me, he can come to wherever he wants. To my house, wherever. I don’t care,” Martinez said as per BBC.
“And I think for me, I respect the relations when they want to help the club because everyone can talk on the television, but when you see (them) here face to face, no-one says anything in your face. So for me, I don’t 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,” he added.
A transformed Manchester United kicked off interim manager Michael Carrick’s second stint in charge with an exhilarating 2-0 derby day defeat of Manchester City in the Premier League at a vibrant Old Trafford on Saturday.
Carrick’s attack-minded side swept away the gloom hanging over the club with second-half goals by Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu underlining their dominance of a disappointing City whose title hopes suffered a crushing blow. Mbeumo, just back from Africa Cup of Nations duty with Cameroon, finished sweetly in the 65th minute and Dorgu got on the end of Matheus Cunha’s cross to put the home fans in dreamland 10 minutes later.
But for a superb display by City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and three disallowed goals, United would have enjoyed a far greater margin of victory while the visitors barely threatened as goal machine Haaland hardly got a look-in.
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