Manchester United have reached the end of their tether with refereeing decisions this season and made a formal complaint to PGMOL on Saturday after their draw at Bournemouth
Manchester United players complain to Stuart Attwell at Bournemouth
Michael Carrick probably hit the nail on the head when he said VAR weren’t going to intervene and give his side a penalty for a foul on Amad after Bournemouth had gone and stuck the ball in the net at the other end.
The officials did look at Adrien Truffert’s grab on Amad’s arm which sent him tumbling in the box on Friday night, but you can be sure the threshold for suggesting an on-field review was raised at Stockley Park when Ryan Christie scored a matter of seconds later.
That only made the pill an even more bitter one for United. They were enraged, feeling they had already been given a penalty for a similar foul by Alex Jimenez on Matheus Cunha. They were about to get angrier still.
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Harry Maguire’s arm across Evanilson was a penalty and in the circumstances a red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity. But again, it felt remarkably similar to Truffert’s tussle with Amad, only without the jeopardy of whether a red card would follow.
It’s easy to see why United officials were “furious” as they left the Vitality Stadium late on Friday. The normally calm and mild-mannered Carrick had already let rip publicly, branding the decisions “astonishing” and raising the double standards throughout his media obligations.
Carrick had suggested apologies after the event were a little meaningless and said he hadn’t sought Stuart Attwell out for clarification on the decisions, but by the time they got back to Manchester in the early hours of Saturday morning, United had resolved to take the matter further.
There was no case of the anger easing as time passed after the final whistle, and this is another example of a Premier League club seeing their aggravation with officials rise as the season goes on. It will be interesting to see how PGMOL boss Howard Webb responds now and whether any of the audio from the Amad decision is made public.
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United also raised the recent decision to disallow Lisandro Martinez’s goal at Burnley in a 2-2 draw in January, another costly decision in the battle for points that looked bizarre given what has been allowed in penalty boxes from set-pieces this season.
Stuart Attwell was again the man in the middle that day and the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel said he was incorrect to punish Martinez for a foul on Kyle Walker, although they somehow then went on to suggest VAR Craig Pawson was right not to get involved.
But the most egregious examples of the inconsistency in officiating plaguing the Premier League can be traced to Friday night on the south coast. The penalty against Maguire and the lack of one against Truffert are difficult to explain.
Even more confusing for PGMOL to explain away is why Maguire was sent off, but Nathan Collins wasn’t shown red at the Gtech Community Stadium earlier this season when Brentford beat United 3-1.
Collins was penalised for a pull on Bryan Mbeumo that September day, with Mbeumo trying to shoot and with a clear sight of goal, having got the wrong side of Collins. The Bees defender was only shown a yellow for the denial of a goalscoring opportunity, despite making no attempt to play the ball. To rub salt into the wounds, Bruno Fernandes missed the penalty.
United raised that example in their complaint to PGMOL and have previously made their feelings about the decision clear. But no apology can change what happened in September or at Bournemouth now.
It ended up being a good point for United at the Vitality Stadium, but they will hope that in the final reckoning, the extra two points don’t prove to be costly. With so much at stake in the Premier League and the financial reward of Champions League football so big, you can understand why clubs are less willing to accept refereeing mistakes, especially in an era when the technology is there to correct them.