Rio Ferdinand has voiced his discontent with VAR's ruling that allowed Erling Haaland's winning goal in the Manchester derby, but he insists Manchester United cannot use this as an excuse for their defeat.
According to the former defender, Michael Carrick's side should have capitalised more effectively on their numerical advantage.
City were reduced to ten men as early as the 23rd minute after Phil Foden received a red card, but it was Haaland who secured the only goal of the match in the 60th minute. Subsequently, the refereeing body Pro Ref acknowledged their error regarding the incident and apologised to United.
Ferdinand believes that Enzo Fernandez's offside position played a significant role in Lisandro Martinez's actions during the goal.
Ferdinand stated:
"Martinez has to move towards the player closest to the goal, regardless of whether he thinks he's offside or not. These decisions are made in the blink of an eye.
He goes to defend against Fernandez, who then tries to play the ball. VAR has simply gone mad!"
However, despite the controversy, United created too few chances after City went down to ten men.
The former England international also highlighted Matheus Cunha’s positioning after Foden’s dismissal and suggested that more space should have been freed up for Bruno Fernandes:
"Cunha needed to position himself in line with the last defender when City had ten players. It was important to create space for Bruno."
Following the game, Yuri Tielemans admitted that United failed to make the most of their advantage:
"I don’t think we created enough chances to win. We were a bit careless with the ball and perhaps made the wrong decisions in the final pass.
Everyone is frustrated because we know we can play much better. We misused the space, made mistakes in our passes, and maybe we were a bit too rushed. In the final third, we lacked the right last pass to create enough opportunities."
After four Premier League matches, Manchester United has only managed to collect four points. Carrick's side will be looking to bounce back against Brighton in the League Cup.
