There was a disappointing outcome on a big decision in the Manchester derby and no one will feel it more than the video assistant referee, Matt Donohue. On Sunday night, Pro Ref confirmed that Donohue had made a mistake in allowing Erling Haaland’s goal in City’s 1-0 victory to stand when Enzo Fernández had been in an offside position. When a VAR considers a decision such as this they start from the point at which the goal is scored and work backwards.
Here, when Haaland scores, the flag is raised by the assistant referee for offside. The VAR automatically checked that on-field decision and used a semi‑automated system to show Haaland was onside. The decision was then made to overturn the call and award the goal.
Before Haaland scores, however, an offside Fernández, marked by Lisandro Martínez, has challenged for the crossed ball with a diving header. The VAR needs to look at this aspect and make a two-part assessment. The first question is: does Fernández make a clear attempt to play the ball?
The second: did that action affect the ability of Martínez to defend the cross? In this case, the answer to both questions was yes. The goal should not have been awarded.
I think Donohue looked at the Fernández situation and did not recognise it was an offence. He is a highly skilled VAR but referees are human and the fact he has got it wrong will hurt. He will learn from it but I would defend the performance of referees more broadly this season.
We’re 39 games into the campaign and they have started really well. We’ve seen some very good examples of officials dealing with holding offences, the ball is in play for longer and referees are managing goal-kicks and throw‑ins too. More stuff is thrown at them every season to deal with.
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