Manchester United Manager Michael Carrick was left “confused” and “concerned” by the decision to allow Erling Haaland’s decisive goal in their derby defeat at Old Trafford.
United fell to their second defeat of the campaign as they were beaten 1-0 at home by 10 men. Manchester Citywhich saw Phil Foden sent off in the 23rd minute for kicking Bruno Fernandes in the stomach.
But the Red Devils failed to make the extra man count, despite Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo each hitting the post, and were punished as Haaland produced a fine finish from close range to head Josko Gvardiol’s deflected cross at the far post towards goal and into the top-left corner.
Haaland’s celebrations were initially cut short by the offside flag but, after a lengthy VAR review, the Norway talisman was ruled to be onside. Enzo Fernández, who attacked the cross from offside but failed to make contact with his attempted header, was controversially adjudged not to have interfered with play.
And it was this interpretation of the rules that left Carrick scratching his head, declaring it a “stunning” explanation.
“I’m confused,” Carrick told Sky Sports.
“Now we put things in place in the game. We have people in the offices with all the screens because of this decision. It’s more worrying if that’s the interpretation of football now. If that’s the interpretation of not interfering in the game now, that’s really worrying for me. It’s an amazing explanation.”
“The decision won’t change the season, but it had a big impact on the game. That decision didn’t affect us today. It’s up to us to create and score after that. We had moments. Of course it’s up to us to do that, but big moments in games like this have a big impact.”
United took 16 shots in the game, with only three on target.
Gianluigi Donnarumma tipped Rashford’s free-kick onto the post in first-half stoppage time and Mainoo rattled the crossbar seven minutes before Haaland broke the deadlock.
But Carrick’s men struggled to create clear-cut chances from open play, their best coming at the death when Fernandes threaded a through ball to Bryan Mbeumo, only for the striker to be denied by an excellent save from Donnarumma.
Despite a frustrating afternoon for United, Carrick defended his side’s performance after suffering a second defeat in four Premier League games to start his first season in permanent charge.
“We did a lot of things right, it seemed like we were growing well into the game,” added Carrick.
“We look dangerous. We’ll take the positives from today’s game and keep going, but we’re not going lightly.
“We could have created more. That’s an answer for us, but we could have done. This is our second defeat now, since I’ve been in charge, but we’re a good team and we’ll win again.
