Jose Mourinho has blasted the role that the Video Assistant Referee played in the award of Manchester United’s penalty in their 1-1 draw against Tottenham on Friday.
United, who trailed 1-0 thanks to a solo effort from Steven Bergwijn midway into the first half, were handed a lifeline in the 80th minute as Eric Dier was deemed to have fouled Paul Pogba inside the box.
Bruno Fernades made no mistake from the spot and brought the away side level.
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s side were then handed a late opportunity to win the game when they were awarded another spot-kick with Dier again seemingly the culprit for fouling Fernandes in the box.
However, VAR overturned Jonathan Moss’ decision this time as replays showed that Fernandes had simulated the contact.
Mourinho insisted that the first spot-kick should also have been overturned.
He told Sky Sports: “I’m not happy with the penalty and I’m also not happy with the second penalty.
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“I’m unhappy with the VAR. The referee can make a mistake and give a cheap penalty. But then the VAR is there to do a job.
“In the second penalty, l am unhappy with Moss because he didn’t give the free-kick on Serge [in the build-up to the penalty award]. Then he gave a cheap penalty, a non-penalty, and in this case the VAR gave the truth.”
The Spurs boss also admitted that he had told his players to be extra careful inside the box given United’s record in winning penalties.
The 57-year-old described the award of the second spot-kick as ‘incredible’ and felt VAR should have booked Fernandes for simulation.
He added: “We know that Manchester United have an incredible record this season of penalties given, so we knew that everything in the box was very dangerous for us.
“We had to be very, very cautious, every shot to block, we knew and were prepared to do it with hands behind the body, we knew it could happen.
“The second penalty is incredible for me. It’s a situation in the box where I feel when the VAR goes for a simulation, the player should immediately be exposed and get a yellow card, but that didn’t happen.
“So I feel really upset with these two decisions, but that’s the way it is.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The first penalty was extremely harsh on Dier but I understand why VAR did not overturn it as it was not a clear and obvious error by Moss. However, I have no idea why Fernandes was not shown a yellow card for his blatant attempt to con the referee towards the end, especially once the decision was overturned.
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