Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football.
This was a seminal weekend for the madcap nature of English football — with stinging allegations of referee bias, complete implosions within 20 minutes when 3-0 up, and moaning about fixture congestion. Again. It ended with two appropriate trends on Twitter: “Embarrassing” and “bloody VAR”.
Here, we will ask just how embarrassed Manchester United were in their FA Cup semi-final victory against Coventry on penalties — and the same question for Nottingham Forest after their club’s very public response to refereeing decisions. And lastly, is it so bad playing football on a Saturday, Pep?
How bad was FA Cup chaos for Manchester United?
At Wembley, another bizarre day in the modern history of Manchester United began with billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe running the London Marathon before, Clark Kent style, throwing his suit on for the current day job of trying to look composed and in control while watching United do hilariously bad things.
Ratcliffe, Erik ten Hag, even Jason Wilcox on his first day: they have all mastered the stoic 50-yard stare while trying to give the impression they know what they are doing, all while their team concede three late goals in an FA Cup semi-final for no logical reason.
VAR may have been trending but, in truth, brilliant Coventry’s devastating hard-luck story was not the fault of the officials. The penalty decision for handball against Aaron Wan-Bissaka, which took the game to extra time, was questionable to say the least (especially when you consider that far more obvious ‘unnatural hand positions’ by Jack Grealish and Ashley Young were not penalised this weekend).
And if Haji Wright’s big toe or left elbow is offside, then he’s offside.
VAR, a stickler for the regulations and not a lover of embracing football banter.
United were shambolic in melting from 3-0 up, conceding from the 71st minute onwards. On the plus side, they won the game and didn’t concede at least 20 shots on their goal, not even after extra time. That hadn’t happened since February.
And at least they regained some dignity by not initially celebrating their shootout victory. There was no pile-on, no sprinting towards winning penalty taker Rasmus Hojlund, instead, they shook the hands of Coventry’s players in a gentlemanly fashion.
Oh, except Antony, who ran in front of Coventry’s crestfallen players and cupped his hands to his ears. That’s the same Antony who came on as a substitute with United 3-0 up and cruising and contributed very little to his team’s victory.
We don’t make it easy for ourselves 😅🔴 pic.twitter.com/4V6h2oFQG5
— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) April 21, 2024
But still: “Yeah, take that, little Championship club with a wage bill two per cent the size of ours, sucks to be you!”
Andre Onana being booked for time-wasting against Coventry City kinda says it all.
How much can Forest blame VAR?
When former Scotland striker Steven Fletcher told the world via social media that he had handed in a transfer request way back in 2012, it felt like breaking through football’s fourth wall.
“Just handed in a transfer request just to let the fans know where I am at right now,” Fletcher, at Wolves at the time, tweeted along with the immortal hashtag ‘headsgone’.
It was a window into football’s inner workings, but Fletcher was just a frustrated, rogue player.
Twelve years on, a professional football club has had its Fletcher moment.
“We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him,” Nottingham Forest tweeted. Football and Twitter heritage.
Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept.
We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.
NFFC will now consider its options.
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 21, 2024
This is it, this is the level clubs are descending to. We had Liverpool saying VAR “undermined sporting integrity” earlier in the season, Arsenal chimed in with their take on “yet more unacceptable refereeing”, and now Forest have gone all Motherland, having a bad day and bashing their phone against a handrailing.
Obviously, Forest should have been awarded at least two penalties and, yes, they have endured some awful decisions this season, but seeing as though every single Premier League club has also endured awful on-field calls, maybe, just maybe, English referees may have simply made mistakes?
There is ample evidence of that. Reams of it, in fact.
What there is absolutely no evidence of, unless Forest are about to present it to the world, is bias of this nature among top-level referees. And to be honest, if you are going to make allegations of that nature on social media — and you’re not an unhinged fan who is six pints deep — you should probably show some evidence.
But if Forest don’t understand the decisions being given against them and the only excuse they can come up with is that Stuart Attwell is a Luton fan, then it really begs the question: what is Mark Clattenburg — who has been hired as the club’s referee analyst — doing other than a bad impression of John Anderson on Gladiators?
How bad do City have it, really?
Sometimes it is only when you go on holiday, or maybe something serious happens in your personal life, that you take a step back and realise how utterly insane football is.
It is a deranged melodrama when you think about it.
Pep Guardiola, when talking about the health of his players on Saturday following a recent flurry of fixtures, including defeat in the Champions League quarter-final to Real Madrid on Wednesday, said he did not understand how they ‘survived’ their FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
“It’s not normal, it’s unacceptable to play today,” Guardiola said, bemoaning the fact his team could not have moved the match a day later. He was then asked whether he or Manchester City had contacted the FA about the issue. “In this country, they don’t change anything,” he replied, two days after the association ended more than a century of tradition by ditching FA Cup replays so the likes of City could be a bit fresher for exciting Tuesday-night trips to Leipzig.
Guardiola was happy with that decision, naturally: “It’s much better… we have a tight schedule with lots of games.”
The @BernardoCSilva strike that secured our place in the #FACup final! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/yCufXbtZ1h
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 21, 2024
They also have more money at their disposal than almost any football club in the world, with the means to buy pretty much whichever player they want, not to mention having the best academy in English football.
What else does Guardiola want that could help his team? Maybe he’d like the air at all matches to be purified. Maybe teams who have more possession in a game should get a bonus point. Maybe the ball shouldn’t be allowed to be higher than 20 feet off the ground. Or maybe clubs who are accused of breaking multiple financial regulations between 2009 and 2018 should have their hearing — let alone any prospective punishment — indefinitely delayed while they continue to win trophy after trophy and other, less influential clubs are deducted points for the rules they broke because they are desperately trying to keep pace with the league’s huge spenders?
If you’re going to build one of the most expensively assembled squads of all time via owners whose wealth is seemingly endless, you’re probably (unless you’re Chelsea) going to go deep in many competitions and have to play a lot of matches. Try rotating your squad instead of only making four changes. Or better still, stop moaning after a game you still won.
Coming up
- Winning a league title is great. Going one ahead of your local rivals in the list of most titles ever won in your country is very notable. Winning only your second league title in the past 14 years when you are a massive club and the last one just wasn’t the same because it was in the pandemic season with no fans is very good. Winning said league title by beating said local rivals in a match is exceptional, amazing and extremely rare. Inter Milan, as the away team, can do all those things with victory at San Siro tonight against AC Milan.
- Talking of a local derby game with a lot riding on it, Everton host Liverpool on Wednesday night in a fixture incessantly billed as a tasty one, yet in reality, since the turn of the century, Liverpool have won 28 derbies to Everton’s five. If the Reds don’t make it 29 at Goodison Park, their title bid is surely over.
- Manchester City are back in action on Thursday away at Brighton, if that’s OK with Pep.
(Top photo: Getty Images)