PGMOL boss explains why Diogo Dalot wasn’t sent off in Man Utd’s win over Man City

PGMOL boss Howard Webb has defended Anthony Taylor’s decision not to send Diogo Dalot off in the Manchester derby, claiming the foul was ‘in the grey zone’ and not necessarily worthy of a red.

There was an early moment of contention in Saturday’s grudge match at Old Trafford as United defender Dalot glanced the top of Jeremy Doku’s knee with the studs on the left touchline.

Doku was clearly in some comfort as he crashed to the floor in a heap at the Theatre of Dreams.

But match official Taylor decided the challenge only warranted a yellow card – a decision that was ultimately supported by video assistant referee Craig Pawson.

The Red Devils would go on to secure a shock 2-0 victory over their bitter rivals in Michael Carrick’s return as interim manager, with Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu both scoring in an 11-minute blitz in the second half.

Many City supporters were up in arms when watching back slow-motion replays of Dalot’s controversial 10th-minute tackle on Doku given the studs-up nature of the challenge.

A magnanimous Pep Guardiola was reluctant to blame the result on the decision, though, despite his side losing further ground on runaway Premier League leaders Arsenal.

On Mike Dean’s suggestion it was ‘100 per cent’ a red-card offence, Guardiola said: ‘You could say that, you could say that red card, different game. Many, many situations happen.

‘It is easy for me to come here and say it should be a red card. It is not about that; we will not grow up if that is the argument to win or lose a game. You have to do better, and we didn’t today.

‘We have to look at ourselves. There are some teams that won 10 versus 11. Maybe we wouldn’t have won.’

Addressing the pivotal moment on the Premier League Match Officials Mic’d Up show alongside Michael Owen, PGMOL chief Webb said: ‘It did split opinion but I’ve also heard a lot of opinion that this should have been a red-card offence.

‘The officials on the field saw the action of Dalot, the saw him stretch forward with his foot. He touches the ball and then there’s contact on Doku.

‘They deemed that to be a reckless action and therefore worthy of a yellow card.’

Webb continued: ‘You’ll see on the field that there’s not a lot of reaction to it when it happens in full speed.

‘The VAR’s job then is to decide if the on-field decision of yellow clearly or obviously wrong.

‘Now, we talk on this show about a lot of situations that sit in the grey zone, where there’s a mix of considerations. I think this is one of those. I know other people think it’s clearly red but I don’t agree, I think there’s a mix of considerations.’

According to Webb, slow-motion replays give fans a ‘distorted view’ of divisive moments like Dalot’s foul – and ‘the full mix of considerations’ have to be taken into account.

‘When we look at this, we see that the point of contact is on the knee, but we also have to factor in speed, force and intensity,’ Webb – who refereed the 2010 World Cup final – went on.

‘You’ll not see many red cards in the Premier League for serious foul play that don’t involve those things.

‘We evaluate those things through a full-speed view or the incident and without looking at it like that then you get a distorted view, you don’t get a true picture of how much force and speed there was in the challenge.

‘Then we have to slow it down, of course, to see the point of contact so different ways of looking at the video for different considerations, but we have to consider the full mix of them when deciding a final outcome.’

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