Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football.
This was a seminal weekend for the madcap nature of English football — with stinging allegations of referee bias, complete implosions within 20 minutes when 3-0 up, and moaning about fixture congestion. Again. It ended with two appropriate trends on Twitter: “Embarrassing” and “bloody VAR”.
Here, we will ask just how embarrassed Manchester United were in their FA Cup semi-final victory against Coventry on penalties — and the same question for Nottingham Forest after their club’s very public response to refereeing decisions. And lastly, is it so bad playing football on a Saturday, Pep?
At Wembley, another bizarre day in the modern history of Manchester United began with billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe running the London Marathon before, Clark Kent style, throwing his suit on for the current day job of trying to look composed and in control while watching United do hilariously bad things.
Ratcliffe, Erik ten Hag, even Jason Wilcox on his first day: they have all mastered the stoic 50-yard stare while trying to give the impression they know what they are doing, all while their team concede three late goals in an FA Cup semi-final for no logical reason.
VAR may have been trending but, in truth, brilliant Coventry’s devastating hard-luck story was not the fault of the officials. The penalty decision for handball against Aaron Wan-Bissaka, which took the game to extra time, was questionable to say the least (especially when you consider that far more obvious ‘unnatural hand positions’ by Jack Grealish and Ashley Young were not penalised this weekend).
And if Haji Wright’s big toe or left elbow is offside, then he’s offside.
VAR, a stickler for the regulations and not a lover of embracing football banter.
United were shambolic in melting from 3-0 up, conceding from the 71st minute onwards. On the plus side, they won the game and didn’t concede at least 20 shots on their goal, not even after extra time. That hadn’t happened since February.
And at least they regained some dignity by not initially celebrating their shootout victory. There was no pile-on, no sprinting towards winning penalty taker Rasmus Hojlund, instead, they shook the hands of Coventry’s players in a gentlemanly fashion.
Oh, except Antony, who ran in front of Coventry’s crestfallen players and cupped his hands to his ears. That’s the same Antony who came on as a substitute with United 3-0 up and cruising and contributed very little to his team’s victory.
We don’t make it easy for ourselves 😅🔴 pic.twitter.com/4V6h2oFQG5
— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) April 21, 2024
But still: “Yeah, take that, little Championship club with a wage bill two per cent the size of ours, sucks to be you!”
Andre Onana being booked for time-wasting against Coventry City kinda says it all.
How much can Forest blame VAR?
When former Scotland striker Steven Fletcher told the world via social media that he had handed in a transfer request way back in 2012, it felt like breaking through football’s fourth wall.
“Just handed in a transfer request just to let the fans know where I am at right now,” Fletcher, at Wolves at the time, tweeted along with the immortal hashtag ‘headsgone’.
It was a window into football’s inner workings, but Fletcher was just a frustrated, rogue player.
Twelve years on, a professional football club has had its Fletcher moment.
“We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him,” Nottingham Forest tweeted. Football and Twitter heritage.
Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept.
We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.
NFFC will now consider its options.
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This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .