The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have released the full discussion between referee Anthony Taylor and VAR (Video Assistant Referee) during a controversial Manchester derby moment.
Manchester United blew their local rivals away on Saturday afternoon with a well-deserved 2-0 victory over Pep Guardiola's Man City. The game marked Michael Carrick's first game in charge since replacing Ruben Amorim.
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However, things could've gone very differently had Diogo Dalot been shown a straight red card in the first half. With the game still level at 0-0, the Portugal international caught Jeremy Doku with a high challenge, but was only shown a yellow card.
Diogo Dalot's Challenge in Manchester Derby: What VAR Said
diogo dalot-1
Former Premier League referee Mike Dean claimed that the challenge was '100 percent a red card', but even after VAR had a second look at the incident, they stuck with Taylor's on-field decision.
On Wednesday evening's episode of Mic'd Up with current PGMOL chief Howard Webb, the incident was revisited. That included the brief audio of the official's conversation. First, the VAR assistant told Taylor:
"Tayls, confirming the yellow card for Manchester United's No.2 (Dalot). He tries to play the ball, he misses it, and then he makes contact with the knee.
"There's no force or intensity, but he does catch him with the follow-through."
The experienced referee then responded: "Yes, I know. That's why it's only a yellow card, because it's glanced contact."
That aligns with the Premier League's statement on X (formerly Twitter), as they confirmed the non-red card by claiming the contact was 'deemed to be glancing and not with excessive force'.
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Howard Webb's Verdict on Dalot's Non-Red Card
Premier League referee Howard Webb looks annoyed
Webb, who was a top-flight referee between 2005 and 2014, and he's now given his thoughts on the Dalot tackle. Going against what appears to be popular opinion, the Englishman has claimed a red card wasn't necessary.
He told Michael Owen: "I know other people think it's clearly red. I don't agree - I think there's a mix of considerations. I know that 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. You'll not see many red cards in the Premier League for serious foul play that don't involve those things."
After establishing the requirements for the full-back to have been given his marching orders, Webb continued:
"Without looking at it at full speed, you get kind of a distorted view. You don't get a true picture of how much force and speed there was in the challenge.
"That foot touches the knee, comes off pretty quickly. We can see on slow-mo that it does touch that knee. But at full speed, when you play it in real time, you can see there's not a great deal of speed in the action. Not a lot of intensity."