It was a tough day for United at Old Trafford, as they suffered a 3-0 defeat to Spurs, with Fernandes being shown a red card just 42 minutes into the game…Continue Reading
The Portuguese midfielder lost his footing before attempting to tackle Maddison, and in the process, made an awkward challenge that caught the Tottenham player’s shin.
The referee quickly issued a straight red card, and VAR did not step in, despite analysts in the Sky Sports studio suggesting it should have only been a yellow.
Fernandes was surprised by the severity of the decision and said that even Maddison thought it was overly harsh.
‘It’s part of slipping going in, I don’t take him as everyone wants to see it, I don’t go with the studs, I take him with my ankle, it’s a clear foul but never a red card, that’s my feeling,’ Fernandes told Sky Sports.
‘Even Maddison when he gets up, he said it’s a foul but never a red card, that’s what he said.
‘In the eyes of everyone you can see it’s never a red card, because if this is a red card I think we have to look at many other incidents, many incidents when I get kicked and I’ve never seen something so quick coming as a red card.
‘I just think it’s never a red card. If he wants to give a yellow because it’s a counter-attack, I agree, then I don’t understand why VAR doesn’t call the referee to the screen. For me it’s just not a really good decision, that’s all.’
Tottenham dominated the match before and after the red card, but Fernandes hailed his teammates for their workrate after he left the pitch.
‘I want to say I left my teammates one man down, I appreciate everything they did on the pitch. We didn’t start the game well with 11 players and then they did very well,’ he said.
‘It was difficult to cover all of the spaces, there are many good things we can take away from this. I am proud of the team.’
Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke scored the goals for Tottenham as they rose to eighth and Man United sunk to 12th in the Premier League table.
