Paul Scholes has acknowledged his words about Lisandro Martínez could have been chosen better but has refused to apologise to the Manchester United defender.

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 Martínez due to their size difference.

It sparked a backlash from Martínez 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’s The Overlap Fan Debate.

“I didn’t realise I had so many Argentinian friends,” Scholes joked.

“Look, what we said probably wasn’t great when you look back.

“I’m not apologising for it. The thing we were trying to say was what we thought and still is, physically, it’s a mismatch, but the way we described probably it wasn’t great and probably shouldn’t have done that.

“He’s had one good game though. I hope to God he proves me wrong, but look at the week before against Brighton and Danny Welbeck.

“Look at the week before that against Burnley. He gave the goal away against Burnley.

“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.”

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.

“It’s not something we like doing. We obviously want to see the team winning every single week.

“I think it’s more so now than it ever has been that people are speaking their mind and you’ve got to deal with it.”

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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.

“He didn’t 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.

“Harry Maguire, I thought he was good next to Martinez as well, but the trouble is… now, 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.