Manchester United boss Michael Carrick has ripped into referee Paul Tierney’s decision to send off Lisandro Martinez during Monday’s 2-1 loss to Leeds United.
Setback
After 24 days without a game, United finally returned to action at Old Trafford against Leeds. Rustiness was always likely, but the extent of it was an unknown and Leeds capitalised ruthlessly.
The visitors went ahead after just five minutes through Noah Okafor, who prodded the ball home after some pitiful defending from United. Okafor doubled Leeds’ advantage at the half-hour mark with a thumping effort as United failed to clear their lines.
United’s evening unravelled further after the break when Martinez was sent off for pulling Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair. Tierney halted the game, made his way to the VAR monitor and then returned to show the Argentine a red card for violent conduct.
Casemiro halved the deficit with a superb header and set the stage for a ferocious finish to the game, but Leeds managed to hold on for all three points.
Carrick, who has now suffered just his second loss since temporarily replacing Ruben Amorim, spoke to Sky Sports after the final whistle and made no secret of his frustration with Tierney’s officiating.
Furious Carrick
Carrick said, “We didn’t start the game particularly well. We obviously conceded when Leny Yoro gets a forearm smash in the back of the head and they score the first goal.”
“They didn’t decide to overturn that decision. That was a big moment in the game. We didn’t quite have the rhythm, we didn’t click, we had some moments but it wasn’t quite there for large parts of the first half.”
“But second half, I thought the boys the way they went about it, stayed positive and fought to get something out of it after another shocking, shocking decision to send [Lisandro Martinez] off. Two games in a row we’ve had decisions like that go against us but that one was one of the worst I’ve seen.”
He further stated about the red card, “You can elbow Leny Yoro for the first goal, leaning arm obviously, you can throw your arm in Martinez’s face and then as he’s off balance because of that, he’s half grappling, he half touches the back of his hair which pulls the bobble to come out.”
“I don’t even know what it looks like. It’s not a pull, it’s not a tug, it’s not aggressive. He touches it and he gets send off.”
“Worse of all, he gets send to overturn it, a clear and obvious error. Shocking.”
Carrick continued, “The boys went for it. It’s football, sometimes you don’t have good spells in games and other times you do. We know we can be better and do things better. We’ll obviously look at that.”
“The second half, could’ve got something out of the game, I’m pleased with how we went about that. We spoke at half-time about getting the next goal and trying to win the game. It was obviously more difficult when you’re a man down.”
Asked if the long break had an impact on his team’s performance, Carrick answered, “Doesn’t make any difference, to be honest.”
“This is one game. We’ll certainly look at it and look to improve. We’ve got another big game, an important game next week and a big end to the season.”
“We’re in a really good position. Tonight’s disappointing, we didn’t want to lose and we didn’t want the referee’s decisions to be so bad against us but we move on. We’ve got a big end to the season and there’s a lot to be positive about.”
United are next in action on Saturday when they go away to Chelsea.
Featured image Carl Recine via Getty Images
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