Man Utd were punished by decision that was never penalty in a million years… any wrong call could cost manager his job

ERIK TEN HAG’S sacking shows just how much rests on the decisions Premier League referees make every week.

The enormity of their job is not lost on them.

Bad referring decisions contributed to Erik ten Hag’s sackingAlamy

AlamyWest Ham were awarded a controversial late penalty against Man Utd[/caption]

But the ex-Manchester United boss finds himself out of work off the back of a decision that was never a penalty in a million years!

Matthijs De Ligt’s challenge on West Ham‘s Danny Ings was not even a foul, let alone a penalty.

And if the correct decision was made, Jarrod Bowen would not have scored from the spot, Man Utd would likely avoided defeat and perhaps Ten Hag would have lived to fight another day?

I just don’t understand why VAR Michael Oliver got involved after on-field ref David Coote did not award a spot-kick. It was just two players coming together in the penalty area and Coote was in a fantastic position, looking straight at the incident.

It was normal contact in a contact sport!

We keep hearing PGMOL chief Howard Webb saying the on-field decision’s got to stay when it’s subjective.

Well that one was not even subjective! It was simply a correct decision from Coote.

But then Coote is at the pitchside monitor for two to three minutes and that’s where he makes a mistake. What on earth did he see there that made him think he had made a clear and obvious error?

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He should have shown much more mental toughness and strength to stick with his original decision because he was correct not to award a penalty.

Apart from West Ham fans, everybody would have applauded him for sticking with his original call. On-field referees have got to get out of the mentality of walking to the screen and just going with whatever VAR tells them.

If everybody who loves football is saying ‘that’s not a penalty’ and the match official is saying ‘it is’, there’s something seriously wrong.

Oliver is our best referee, no doubt about that, so I can only wonder if he wrongly got involved because he was fatigued.

He was far too forensic as Coote had 100 per cent NOT made a clear and obvious error.

I just don’t understand what is going on with the training and education of our VARs and officials and where PGMOL chief Webb stands with it all.

Arsenal vs Liverpool

Arsenal can feel very aggrieved Gabriel Jesus’ late goal was disallowed against Liverpool.

On-field ref Anthony Taylor judged Jakub Kiwior to have fouled Dominik Szoboszlai in the build up.

But only Taylor can tell us exactly why he deemed it a foul because I saw nothing wrong with it.

It was a subjective decision and maybe he felt Kiwior went over the top of Szoboszlai and made it difficult for him to challenge for the ball.

But the Arsenal defender clearly won the ball before he went over over Szoboszlai so Taylor should have allowed play to continue, and if he had, the goal would have stood and Arsenal would likely have won.