Michael Carrick rages at ‘shocking’ decisions in surprise Man Utd defeat | Football

Michael Carrick claims Lisandro Martinez’s red card against Leeds was one of the worst refereeing decisions he has ever seen as he slammed the ‘shocking’ officiating.

Manchester United were beaten 2-1 at home by Leeds on Monday night as the Yorkshire side enjoyed a huge boost to their Premier League survival chances.

Noah Okafor scored both of the visitors’ goals, both within the first half hour, before Martinez was shown a straight red on 56 minutes.

The Red Devils defender was adjudged to have pulled Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair, with VAR instructing the referee to have a look at the replay, which led to the sending off.

Carrick was seething about the decision, while he also felt Calvert-Lewin fouled Leny Yoro in the build up to Okafor’s opener.

‘We didn’t start the game particularly well. We obviously conceded,’ Carrick told Sky Sports.

‘Leny Yoro gets a forearm smashed in the back of his head and then they score the first goal, so they didn’t decide to overturn that decision, so 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.

Second half I thought the boys went about it, stayed positive and fought for everything and tried to get something out of the game after another shocking, shocking decision to send Licha off.

‘That’s two games in a row we’ve had decisions like that go against us, but that is one of the worst I’ve seen.’

A hair pull is adjudged to be violent conduct, which is a straight red card, but Carrick could not understand how the pretty minor pull can be seen as worse as a whack in the head with an arm.

‘You can elbow Leny Yoro for the first goal, in the side of the head, then you can throw your arm in Licha’s face,’ said the Manchester United interim boss. ‘Then as he’s off balance because of it, he half touches the back of his hair, which pulls the bobble out and leads to it looking like… 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 gets sent off.

‘Worst of all he was sent to overturn it as a clear and obvious error. It’s shocking.’

On the decisions, Jamie Carragher had little sympathy for the complaint over the first goal, defending Calvert-Lewin.

‘No, I always think every challenge looks worse in slow motion, but for me, no,’ the former Liverpool defender told Sky Sports.

‘When you get up you need that leverage with your arms. For me, I wouldn’t be expecting a foul there.’

There was more sympathy on the Martinez red card, with Roy Keane accepting that a red card comes by the letter of the law, but this situation felt harsh.

‘When you class this as violent conduct, as ex-players, that seems really harsh,’ said the Irishman. ‘But we’ve seen other players, [Michael] Keane at Everton, it is harsh, but if we’re looking at the laws of the game then you have to accept it.

‘You’ve obviously not going to agree with it, as Carrick is, he’s disappointed with it, but we’ve seen it happen before.’

Carragher thought it was ‘soft’ suggesting most fans would be thinking: ‘Come on, that is not a red card, behave yourself.’

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