Michael Carrick says he retains faith in the video assistant referee despite the error that helped decide the Manchester derby, but the Manchester United head coach has made clear that the apology his club received does not count for much.
Manchester City won 1-0 at Old Trafford, and the referee’s body Pro Ref issued United a formal apology within three hours of the final whistle. Neither VAR Matt Donohue nor his assistant Blake Antrobus have been selected for games this weekend after they failed to spot City midfielder Enzo Fernandez in a clearly offside position and interfering with play before Erling Haaland scored the winning goal.
Carrick had been livid after the game, describing it as a “worrying” interpretation of the rules. Asked, ahead of United’s Premier League trip to Fulham on Sunday, whether he still had faith in VAR, he said: “One-off things can happen. At the time it was a pretty big one, we know that. I don’t think I need to go over that. But yes, I’ve got faith in it. It’s the system we work towards and that we use.”
Referee’s chief Howard Webb has faced heavy criticism over general officiating standards in the game. Analysing the incident on ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’, Webb said he was “really disappointed” with the outcome, explaining that the officials had been too focused on a potential offside against Haaland and had failed to assess Fernandez’s position. Webb has also spoken to United about the situation in an effort to be more accountable.
“The apology doesn’t mean an awful lot,” Carrick said. “I can appreciate and respect them putting their hands up and saying we got that wrong – it does happen. We just have to deal with it. Maybe we get one or two decisions on the law of averages or whatever but that one had a huge impact on the game and that’s why it was particularly tough.”
Carrick was also asked about central defender Leny Yoro and offered his backing despite a disappointing performance in the 3-2 Carabao Cup defeat by Brighton on Wednesday.
Yoro had been linked with Real Madrid, Paris St-Germain and Liverpool when he joined United from Lille as an 18-year-old in July 2024, and the £52.2m fee underlined the faith the club’s recruitment department had in his potential. So far it has gone unfulfilled. The 20-year-old has featured in 55 Premier League games, 25 of them as a substitute, and his only starts this term have been against Sabah FK in the Champions League and against Brighton, when his positioning was called into question as the visitors became the first side to win at Old Trafford after trailing by two goals for more than 50 years.
“I’ve got no worries for Leny,” Carrick said. “He’s got a fantastic future ahead of him. There’s no cut off point. Some players find when they’re 18 that they are at a level where they can really perform. Sometimes it’s 22, 23, 24 when you see players start developing. What we’ve got to be careful of, and I certainly won’t do, is making knee-jerk decisions on certain players just because of one game or one half or one moment in a game. We’ve got a lot of belief in Leny.”