Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has, after all, been caught by referee Howard Webb, who admits that he saw VAR error in the unbeaten champions’ winning goal. It was during the attack that the video assistant referee failed to check to see if Enzo Fernandez had his back to the goalposts.
Haaland had the opportunity of finding Manchester City ahead in the 60th minute. Later, Michael Oliver, the referee, ruled the goal offside and it was later overturned due to a VAR appeal whose result would’ve been onside by three centimetres. This was subsequently reversed and a goal was awarded.
There was one other aspect of the incident, however, that was overlooked during the review. Fernandez had looked like he was in the corner of the area, making his way towards Josko Gvardiol’s cross and was attempting to cross. He did not engage him, but his movements did impact Manchester United’s defence as defender Lisandro Martinez came to him. This opened a chance for Haaland at the back post.
Premier League refereeing body Pro Ref’s chief refereeing officer Webb questioned whether the VAR had got into ‘the wrong head of the ball’ with Haaland rather than fully taking into account Fernandez’s role.
“I was really disappointed with this outcome. Let me tell you, we are all we,” Webb said on ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’: Episode 35.
The officials were also disappointed and said VAR Matt Donohue and assistant VAR Blake Antrobus would also not be able to officiate until after the international break, he added.
This VAR review is in the audio format, and demonstrates the evolution of the error. The first time was to check if Haaland was infringing the upright half-line which was in front of the penalty area. The Manchester City striker was actually within the penalty area three centimetres outside the by-line and onside, according to semi-automated offside technology.
After that, the VAR explained to Oliver that he had to do an investigation on the entire attacking period. The move, however, was a focus of the review at the time right on to whether or not Fernandez made contact.
The VAR did multiple checks of the camera angles to determine if Fernandez was in contact. Once it was established that there was no touch, the officials ruled that Haaland’s strike should be allowed to count.
They never judged whether the offside position that Fernandez was in affected the play himself.That’s what was Webb’s main point.
“The VAR gets super-focused on Haaland,” Webb explained. “He makes it clear he’s onside, he believes it may be a good goal.”
The VAR then focused on Fernandez primarily to see if he’d instigated a new phase of the offside. The broader issue of how impairment of opposition occurred due to the position and mobility of Fernandez was not adequately discussed.
“They’ve effectively been looking at Haaland’s job, and it’s a big problem, because they don’t have someone to do that job properly right now,” Webb stated. He also highlighted the absence of the assistant VAR who could have done the right thing and played the lead VAR back into the fight and taken on different input over the full attacking move.
Webb said that “the rest of his staff have to come out of that tunnel,” but they didn’t do so this time around.
The move has come under harsh criticism after initially appearing to be looking at Haaland, but now moving towards Fernandez. That pass dragged Haaland wide at the far post where he completed the move.
Former England striker Wayne Rooney still said he wondered how officials could have been unable to see Fernandez’ location. In his interview with Match Of The Day the matter was discussed and Rooney explained to the reporter all the reasons why the incident needed to be taken into further account for this to be the case.
Webb had no doubt in his mind when it came to his final judgement. He added that the goal ought to have been scrapped, leading to the incident being a major VAR fluff in the Manchester Derby.
The situation will now be reviewed by the officials, who are looking to learn from the incident and ensure it does not happen again.
Another big discussion with Phil Foden and a Bruno Fernandes came up during the match from the refs. Everything looked fine for Foden until he kicked Fernandes in the upper body in the 23rd minute, leading to him being sent off for a rectangular card.
Webb agreed that there was nobody better suited to replace Foden as he had kicked out hard as Manchester City’s playmaker.
But Webb didn’t think the Fulham defender deserved to be sent off for his offence. Webb said it was “more petulant than violent” after the Manchester United midfielder kicked Foden in the backside.
“Excessive force or brutality would be needed for it to be considered a violent act,” said Webb. Fernandes’ action in his opinion failed to rise up to that standard and should have instead came with a yellow card.
Webb also said that, if a VAR had sifted through all of the footage and the ‘day one’ card was not spotted by the referee, then ‘day one’ yellow-card incident involving Fernandes would have been spotted in the process.
But the big debate left to be had from the Manchester game is what about the goal that won the game. Haaland was rightly marked onside, but the markers did no consider the possible illegal act of Fernandez when he played through the attacking phase of play.
However, for Webb it’s a lesson that can’t be simply left alone when a part of a problem has been solved. The whole attack has to be considered – if an offside player has played off the ball or not.
The admission places the emphasis on the decision making process and not the technology. The semi-automated system was able to correctly detect Haaland’s position, however, the VAR team did not perform the broader offside reckoning.
However after the goal was awarded, Manchester City ran out 3 points ahead and Manchester United faced a decision, which as Web slated, “should have gone the other way. The VAR error is now to get a second look from the refereeing rules authorities with the intent to making sure it doesn’t happen again.
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