05 September 2023 , 19:21
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Manchester United avoided giving away a late penalty vs Wolves thanks to officials “overthinking” the situation.
That’s the view of chief of referees Howard Webb, who acknowledged the disappointing mistake during unprecedented access to the decision-making process. In a bid to add more transparency to the use of VAR in the Premier League, Webb is fronting a show which highlights controversial calls and the process that leads to them.
Joined by Michael Owen, Webb went through the incident from the opening game of the season, which saw Andre Onana smash into Wolves striker Sasa Kalajdzic in added-on time at Old Trafford. On-field official Simon Hooper waved away the initial protests, with Michael Sailsbury advising him NOT to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.
In the recording, referee Hooper can be heard shouting: "No way! It's a collision, we don't give those". The VAR then advises he is double checking the incident and confirms Onana catches the Wolves striker "very late" with a "clumsy" challenge.
Sailsbury then deduces that it is a normal collision because both players have gone for the ball, confirming to Hooper to stick with his original decision. Returning to the studio, Webb immediately clarifies that the incident "should have led to an intervention" which would have likely resulted in the decision being overturned.
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He explains: "We hear the VAR in this circumstance going through the checking phase and he's describing what he's seen. He starts to go down the road to recommending a review, but he overthinks it a little bit. Sometimes VAR can do that. They're trying to identfiy what the game would expect and when he sees them come together, he knows that can happen and it's not a foul.
Howard Webb admitted the officials were guilty of "overthinking" the incident at Old Trafford (Twitter/@SkySportsPL)"He sees it as a collision and two players coming together - the difference with this one, is that Onana jumps IN at the Wolves player so it's not two players coming together. It's one going into another."
Webb added: "In the end we didn't recommend a review...we should have done, we acknowledge that as an error, which is of course disappointing."
The PGMOL chief also concedes that Hooper's initial verdict of a collision could have swayed those at Stockley Park. "You actually hear the referee saying 'it's a collision, we don't give those'. Well we don't when it's two players jumping into each other, but that isn't what the video shows here."
O'Neil and Wolves subsequently received an apology, with Webb revealing that would continue to be the policy moving forward: “We think it’s important we acknowledge clear errors. When it’s clear like this one, we don’t want people to benchmark against this situation.
"This was clearly wrong – if this happens the following week, we expect a penalty to be given. So, I think it’s only right we acknowledge errors when they happen, acknowledge that wasn’t correct; and we expect to see something different next time.”