Coach Erik Ten Hag was furious with referee Anthony Taylor for the English “king” who sent off Casemiro during Man Utd’s goalless draw with Southampton in the Premier League.
“Obviously this match was influenced by the referee. I still hold the view that it’s the referee who influences the game and we see there are situations where the way decisions are made are different.” Coach Ten Hag publicly criticized the decisions of referee Anthony Taylor in the goalless draw between Man Utd and Southampton on the evening of March 12.
Casemiro received a red card after hitting the ball with the bottom of his shoe against Southampton midfielder Alcaraz (Image: Getty).
The Dutch strategist expressed his dissatisfaction with the referee’s red card sending Casemiro off the field in the 34th minute of the match. After losing the ball, midfielder Casemiro had a nasty ball with Alcaraz when he kicked the bottom of his shoe into the opponent’s “gravure tube”.
Initially, referee Anthony Taylor only showed a yellow card, but after listening to advice from the VAR referee team as well as reviewing the screen, he changed it to a red card. This red card causes Casemiro to be banned for 4 matches, greatly affecting Man Utd in the race to compete for a place in the Champions League next season.
However, coach Ten Hag said that the problem lies in the fact that the referee gave Casemiro a red card after reviewing the VAR but did not give Man Utd a penalty in the situation where the ball touched Armel Bella-Kotchap’s hand in the box at the end of the first half.
Armel Bella-Kotchap’s handball phase in the penalty area, but the referee did not give Man Utd a penalty (Image: The Sun).
“There is no doubt, it was definitely a penalty. I really don’t understand why VAR didn’t come in like they did in the red card situation for Casemiro,” coach Ten Hag said.
However, the Dutch strategist is still satisfied with the way Man Utd played even though there was only one draw at home.
“A big compliment to the whole team, once again showing a strong Man Utd having to play for a long time with 10 against 11.
We had a match 3 days away so again, the whole team was physically and mentally healthy, so we had a great performance. We could have won this match,” said coach Ten Hag.
