Here are your Manchester United morning headlines for Sunday, November 22nd.
Solskjaer provides penalty verdict
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes that referee David Coote made three correct calls on different penalty shouts as United squeezed past West Bromwich Albion on Saturday evening.
Coote first awarded West Brom a penalty for a foul by Bruno Fernandes on Conor Gallagher. However, upon considering VAR, he reversed his decision.
Then he awarded United a penalty for a handball, before using VAR again to deem that Fernandes’ missed penalty should be retaken as Sam Johnson was off his line when he made the save. Fernandes then duly converted his second attempt.
Afterwards, Solskjaer defended Coote’s three decisions.
“We're delighted to get three points, of course,” he said . “First win at home in the league this season, a clean sheet, we're happy with that. Three very tight calls and I think it's probably three right decisions because Sam was off the line.”
Ferdinand, Scholes disagree on United incident
On the West Brom penalty incident, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand disagreed on whether they believed Coote made the right call to overturn his initial decision and judge that Fernandes had not fouled Gallagher.
Speaking on BT Sport after the match, Ferdinand blasted Coote’s decision to overturn his own call using VAR.
“It's a disgraceful decision,” he said. “He got it right the first time around. He's gone there, looked at it, how do you actually go against the decision you've made initially when you're looking at it closely?
“The more you look at it, the more it's a penalty.”
Scholes, however, disagreed. “I've seen it about 50 times, I still can't make my mind up on it,” he replied. “I know it does look like a little bit of shin on shin but it does look like he touches the ball a little bit as well.
“From another angle, you can see Bruno's reaction to go and complain to the referee straight away saying he never fouled him. We'd all do that, of course, but I don't think it's totally conclusive... I'm not sure it's that clear.”
Bruno Fernandes overtakes United great for penalty goals
In United’s victory over West Brom, Fernandes scored his 19th goal in 34 games for the club. United have won four Premier League games this season, with Fernandes notching the winner in each of them. In all, he has six league goals on the season.
Despite only arriving in January and not taking on the penalty responsibility until February, Fernandes has already scored 12 times from the spot, missing just once. He has now overtaken Dennis Irwin in the penalty rankings in United’s history and is only six behind Eric Cantona.
Speaking after the match , Solslkjaer revealed that he believes that Fernandes’ willingness to take the penalty a second time after missing his first attempt speaks volumes about the midfielder’s character.
“It says everything it should be saying,” he said. “If you play for Man United you should never be afraid of taking a penalty. There aren't many better opportunities to score a goal and we want players to take responsibility for both good and bad.
“And if some penalty takers change their mind after missing one I'd be disappointed but I know Bruno would want to take every penalty as well, so I was never worried.
“It's much worse doing a speech in front of 15 people inside a room. They've been playing football their whole lives, it's a kick from 12 yards.”
