Michael Carrick criticizes ‘incredible’ penalty decisions in Manchester United’s draw.
BOURNEMOUTH, England — Manchester United manager Michael Carrick described the choices made by referee Stuart Attwell as “baffling” and “astonishing” following his team’s perceived penalty misfortune in a thrilling 2-2 Premier League stalemate against Bournemouth.
United gained the upper hand in the 61st minute with a penalty converted by Bruno Fernandes after Bournemouth defender Álex Jiménez pulled Matheus Cunha’s shirt in the penalty area.
Shortly thereafter, Diallo was fouled by Adrien Truffert in the box, but VAR ruled that the contact “was not sufficient for a foul.”
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United’s appeals for a penalty were dismissed. Moments later, Bournemouth surged down the field and equalized through Ryan Christie.
United regained the lead in the 71st minute when Bournemouth’s James Hill inadvertently headed a corner from Fernandes into his own goal.
However, the mood among the traveling fans shifted when Maguire fouled striker Evanilson with a push in the box, resulting in a red card for him and a penalty for Bournemouth, which they converted to level the match.
While Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola stated that the Diallo incident was “never a penalty,” Carrick argued that the situations involving Cunha and Diallo were essentially the same.
“He’s definitely made an error with one of them because he awarded us a penalty for a similar incident that he did not call,” Carrick mentioned at a news conference.
“There’s a two-arm grab. The penalty for Matheus is given, but the second one on Amad is not, which I believe is nearly identical. If you have two hands on someone in the box and they fall while in control of the ball, for me, both should be penalties.
“It will be intriguing to see which one they recognize as incorrect: the one we received or the one we did not.
“It’s a significant moment. They do not award it, they go down the other end and score, and then it becomes, ‘oh, it needs to be a more obvious penalty to overturn,’ simply because they scored, when in reality it is a penalty and should be treated as such if one has already been given.
“It’s truly baffling to comprehend that. And because they scored, the dynamics of the game shift.
“We defended well with 10 men after all that. But the penalty situation is just astonishing, I must say. One of them has to be wrong.”
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes also voiced his frustrations, stating that he believes “smaller” players often do not receive the calls they merit from referees.
“Not receiving a penalty and then conceding one in a similar situation to Amad — one is given, one is not,” he told Sky Sports.
“I understand it’s challenging for the referee to award two penalties to the same team in one match, but I don’t grasp why VAR doesn’t intervene in that scenario or with Harry [Maguire] because either one is a penalty and so is the other, or neither is.
“Amad is about to shoot when he gets pushed — you can see that something disrupts his balance completely. It’s frustrating for smaller players because they are often labeled as soft, while fouls are more frequently called against larger players.
“I believe the other situation is a penalty, but I also think the one on Amad is a penalty, and that could have altered the outcome of the game.”
United remains in third place in the Premier League and will be hoping that Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Chelsea also drop points this weekend as they strive to secure a top-five finish to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
PA contributed to this report.
