Martinez calls Haaland winner an injustice, says Fernandez’s run left him unmarked
Manchester United defender Lisandro Martínez has explained why he did not pick up Erling Haaland before the goal that decided Sunday’s Manchester derby.
United lost 1-0 to Manchester City. Martínez called the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) outcome an “injustice.” He argued that City’s Enzo Fernández was offside in the build-up and that Fernández’s position in front of him decided how he defended the box, leaving Haaland free at the back post.
“I believe [Fernández] was offside. What I find perplexing are the rules. He was right there! I approached him because he was directly in front of me. That is why Haaland was unmarked at the back,” he told reporters. Asked whether he would have marked Haaland had Fernández not been there, the 27-year-old said: “Absolutely, it is as straightforward as that.”
He also attacked Premier League officiating. Officials visit the club each season, he said, spend an hour on the laws and sound sure of themselves. “Yet, having five or six officials making such errors in the Premier League is simply unacceptable. We have to return home with this sense of injustice.”
United sit 13th after four games, with four points from one win, one draw and two defeats, seven goals scored and seven conceded.
Martínez is making a chain-of-causation argument: an offside body in his line, a step toward that body, a striker left alone. Whether VAR agreed with the offside is now a matter of the broadcast and the panel, not of his press conference. What the clip will keep showing is Haaland finishing at the far post and a centre-back who says the law, as applied, pulled him out of the space that mattered. Clubs can live with a lost derby. They struggle when the dressing room decides the result was stolen by a rule explained confidently on a weekday and, in their view, missed on a Sunday.
