Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola did not want to blame Diogo Dalot’s red-card escape for the 2-0 defeat at Manchester United on Saturday.
Guardiola was probably being magnanimous due to his side’s disappointing performance in the derby loss at Old Trafford.
Deep down he will surely be thinking that it could have been a different game had Dalot been sent off in the 10th minute when the score was 0-0.
The Portugal international had closed down Jeremy Doku by the touchline. He stretched out a leg to try to intercept the ball but made contact with his studs on the knee of the Manchester City winger.
Referee Anthony Taylor booked Dalot. The video assistant referee (VAR), Craig Pawson, backed up the on-field decision saying the contact was “glancing and not with excessive force”.
The court of public opinion did not agree, especially among former players.
Ex-England striker Alan Shearer told BBC Sport: “I think VAR got that terribly wrong. For me that was a clear red card.
“Forget about whether the contact was ‘glancing’ or not. I can understand why the referee hasn’t given it, it might have been difficult for him to see it, but when the VAR has two professionals looking at that it should have been a very easy decision to give a red card.”
Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) appears to be comfortable with the yellow card. It believes that too much stock has been placed on the slow motion replay.
The VAR is damned if they do use slow motion replays, and damned if they do not. PGMO would argue that if you watch the incident at normal speed it does not look like there is excessive force.
Yet if this challenge happened in a Champions League game then Uefa would expect Taylor to produce a red card.
It shows the marked difference between how the Premier League views serious foul-play challenges compared to the rest of Europe.
The Premier League insists on a more physical game to protect the fast-paced and full-blooded product which has made it so successful around the globe.
It creates more grey areas in strong challenges which would be more universally seen as a red card on the continent. In adds an extra layer of subjectivity to decision making.
PGMO can get hamstrung at times trying to find the right balance.
Last season the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents Panel deemed there had been seven errors on serious foul play.
The VAR missed three red cards and failed to step in to rescind two others. Two red cards were wrongly shown after a VAR review.
Four players – Evanilson, Bruno Fernandes, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Christian Norgaard – had red cards overturned on appeal.
That is the highest number there has been in one season, a statistic which appears contradictory to the whole point of VAR.
For important context, there has not been one serious foul play error logged by the KMI Panel this season – up to now.
A decision in Chelsea‘s game against Tottenham last April, with Pawson the referee, is worthy of comparison.
Pape Matar Sarr won the ball off Moises Caicedo before striding forward to score.
But Sarr had committed a foul on Caicedo, making clear contact with his studs around the knee of the Chelsea midfielder.
The VAR, Jarred Gillett, sent Pawson to the monitor to disallow the goal. Pawson considered the merits of a red card but Gillett was insistent the challenge was only reckless and a yellow card.
Gillett made a point of showing the challenge in real speed to determine the sanction. Like Pawson on Saturday, Gillett said contact was glancing.
In both cases there was a buckle of the opponent’s knee to indicate a degree of force. Dalot had a straight leg though, which is an indicator of greater force.
In his Match Officials Mic’d Up show afterwards PGMO boss Howard Webb backed a yellow card.
Webb said: “It would have been incorrect to send him off because it’s not excessive force, it’s a reckless contact, so yellow card.”
PGMO would likely say the Dalot decision shows it is being consistent – especially as the same referee was involved in both incidents.
There was no real controversy over the Sarr sanction, no clamour for a red card.
Maybe that was because there was a VAR review to rule out the goal, that the referee had watched the incident again and made his own decision. The KMI Panel did not log the yellow card as an error.
The comments of the referee to the VAR are key. If Taylor has seen the contact of studs on knee and made his own judgement call on that aspect then it is tough for the video referee to get involved.
It is still possible for the VAR to tell the referee he has made a misjudgement over the force in the challenge. But if the referee does give a good description it limits the scope for a review.
Referees are looking for prolonged contact. So if, like with Dalot and Sarr, the full boot makes contact with the leg but it comes off quickly that would be considered glancing.
Compare it to the VAR red card Curtis Jones received in September 2023. It is a decision which still angers Liverpool fans.
Jones contact with the shin of Yves Bissouma and pushed through into the leg as he slid forward to try to play the ball.
PGMO would say this was not present with Dalot’s challenge, so it was “glancing”.
That is a hard sell and most would seem to accept this as a VAR red card.
