Peter Schmeichel spoke to Lisandro Martinez moments after the Manchester United star made explosive comments in a separate interview following Tuesday's 2-0 defeat away to Atletico Madrid

Peter Schmeichel has addressed criticism of his interview with Lisandro Martinez, admitting that it was 'clumsy'. Schmeichel spoke to Martinez moments after the Manchester United defender had, in a separate interview, slammed the club's leadership and called out director of football Jason Wilcox.

The 28-year-old was unhappy with their efforts in the summer transfer window in which United only signed four players. Martinez's comments came in an interview with Prime Video Sport's Gabriel Clarke after the Red Devils had lost 2-0 to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.

After speaking to Clarke, Martinez chatted with Schmeichel, who was working as CBS Sports' pitchside reporter at the Metropolitano. Fans on social media criticised the United legend for 'trying to be positive' as he attempted to shift the conversation to on-the-pitch matters.

It turns out that Schmeichel didn't know the context behind Martinez's words. Appearing on The Overlap, sponsored by Sky Bet, he explained: "It's a bit of a weird one. My job is I do a couple of things to camera from the touchline, I'm there, I'm talking about the atmosphere and anything I've heard. And afterwards I go to the flash zone and do interviews.

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"You're building relationships with the media people from the different clubs and you can say, 'I want to speak to him or him'. But at the end of the day they're not solely in charge of who you get to speak to UEFA also has media people on.

"There's one responsible for every team, then there's one above them, and everything has to go through them. When this happened, I'm actually next to TNT (sic), and Gabriel [Clarke] interviewed Lisandro Martinez. That interview is where everything came out.

"I know he's there, he's not on my list. I'm not interviewing him at all because I've asked for somebody else. This interview finishes and they push him into mine. So, when you look at the interview, I'm a little bit surprised. I don't know what he'd said at this time.

"Then in interview with me he says, 'We should do a lot better'. He's carrying on from that interview, but I don't know what he's saying. Because he's speaking to a former player, I think he's saying that we, as players, should do a lot better.

"I had no clue he was on the attack the way he was. So in my interview, I didn't understand that he was saying all that, so in a way my interview became a little bit clumsy in the greater scheme of things."

Joe Hart then asked Schmeichel what he'd have done differently had he known the full context. The former goalkeeper replied: "Definitely, I would've asked him if he felt that he was in a position to say that. I don't think players should ever come out and say anything like that."

United manager Michael Carrick confirmed on Friday that Martinez, who's been fined by the club and has issued an apology, will be part of the squad for Sunday's game against Leeds. Carrick insists that United have moved on from the drama and are focussed on getting their first win since September 10.