Martinez: Say it to my face then
Manchester United played rivals Manchester City off the park yesterday in a 2-0 win at Old Trafford. Pep Guardiola’s team can feel grateful the scoreline was so modest, with United having three goals disallowed and hitting the woodwork twice, amongst some other world class saves from Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Ahead of the game, United legends Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt took their podcast to really stick the boot in Lisandro Martinez. Scholes expressed his concern about Martinez facing Erling Haaland in the derby, before Butt said: “Haaland would pick Martinez up and run with him. It’ll be like, you know, when you see a dad after school running down the road with a little toddler. That’s what it’d be like.”
It was a strange comment, given that Haaland had only scored in one game of the six he had previously played against Martinez.
During Saturday’s derby, Haaland was totally anonymous and was subbed off with 10 minutes left to play to ironic cheers from the Old Trafford crowd.
Martinez spoke to the press after the game about his feelings on the criticism.
Honestly, he can say whatever he wants. I told him already, if he wants to say something to me, he can come to me wherever he wants. To my house, wherever. I don’t care. 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 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. People always say whatever they want, it’s something that I can’t control. What I can only do is to show on the pitch and I think today I showed it.
Imagine we have to think what people say. We have to be focused for the rest of this club. We want to change this situation and we are the only ones who can change it.
The post Martinez: Say it to my face then first appeared on Republik Of Mancunia: A Manchester United Blog.