Peter Schmeichel explains 'clumsy' Lisandro Martinez interview after Man United fans claimed he 'tried to shift the conversation' to 'the good news' after Argentine's explosive outburst

Peter Schmeichel has conceded his interview with Lisandro Martinez was 'clumsy' following criticism from Man United supporters, after admitting he was caught by surprise when he was presented with the chance to speak to the defender.

Martinez delivered an extraordinary outburst to Amazon Prime accusing Manchester United's chiefs of lacking ambition in the transfer market after his side suffered a 2-0 defeat against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

After his explosive post-match interview, Martinez had joined Man United legend Schmeichel on American network CBS Sports and continued to hit out at the board for failing to build a suitably competitive squad for the season.

Several Red Devils fans were unimpressed by Schmeichel's line of questioning during the interview, disappointed that he appeared to try and find a 'positive' to soften Martinez's attack on the board.

Speaking on the Overlap, Schmeichel revealed he had not been due to interview Martinez post-match and that the defender had been presented to him moments after giving his explosive comments.

Peter Schmeichel has admitted his interview with Lisandro Martinez was 'clumsy' after the former Man United star was criticised by supporters for his 'positive' approach

Schmeichel revealed he had not been due to interview Martinez and was caught by surprise, while admitting he was unaware of his explosive comments moments before to Amazon

'It’s a little bit of a weird one. When I do my job in the Champions League, I do a couple of pieces to camera from the touchline about the atmosphere, and afterwards I go to the flash zone and do interviews,' Schmeichel said.

'You build relationships with the media people from the different clubs, and you can say you 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, because the 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 was next to TNT Sports, and Gabriel [Clarke] interviewed Martínez. That interview is where everything came out. I knew he was there, but he wasn’t on my list. I wasn’t interviewing him at all. I’d asked for somebody else.

'That interview finished, and they pushed him into mine. So, when you look at the interview, I’m a little bit surprised. At that point I didn’t know what he’d said.

'Then in my interview 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 thought he was saying that we, as players, should do a lot better.

'I had no clue he was on the attack the way he was. 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.'

Schmeichel, who won the Champions League in 1999 during Man United's historic Treble-winning season, had begun his interview by asking Martinez to explain the team’s poor run of form having gone five games without a win.

Martinez will be in Man United's squad on Sunday after apologising to Man United chiefs for his comments

Martinez responded by again taking aim at the board by criticising the size of United's squad, insisting a lack of depth makes it difficult to compete.

'The rotation in the team, we have many games and have to rotate players. For me, we don't have the best squad,' Martinez said. 'For sure, when you watch the television, you see the player and the manager and you point the finger, which is right - we take responsibility - but also as a club I expect more.

'I'm not going to close my mouth. We need more ambition, we need to talk more about winning Champions Leagues, winning Premier Leagues.'

To that, Schmeichel responded: 'But the good news is that we're only in October, there's a long way to go.' Cutting him off, Martinez interjected: 'Yes, but every season we are saying the same thing. If we don't say the truth, nothing will change.'

Martinez will be in United's squad to face Leeds at Elland Road on Sunday after he apologised for criticising director of football Jason Wilcox and club bosses in a television interview which landed the 28-year-old defender with a fine.

On Thursday evening, after talks with United, Martinez shared a social media post apologising.

'Today I met with the club's leadership and the manager,' he said: 'It was a very positive conversation, where we were able to exchange views and speak openly about what happened after Tuesday's game.

'Everyone knows that I am a passionate person and that I live football with great intensity.

'The frustration of the defeat led me to express how I felt at a time and place that perhaps were not the right ones, and for that I want to apologise.'