The latest Manchester United news as Premier League referee, Anthony Taylor, explains his controversial decision during their 4-3 defeat to Brentford.
Anthony Taylor during the Premier League match between Brentford and Manchester United.(Image: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Premier League referee Anthony Taylor has explained why he allowed play to continue – despite Manchester United having a player injured in the build-up to one of their goals conceded against Brentford.
United were beaten 4-3 by the Bees in their Premier League game at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Despite goals from Mason Mount, Alejandro Garnacho and Amad, United conceded four to lose their 16th match in the top-flight this term.
United were also dealt a blow with Matthijs de Ligt suffering an injury in the defeat in west London. It was in the build-up to Brentford’s second goal of the game, from Kevin Scahde, that De Ligt picked up the injury following a challenge for the ball with Yoane Wissa.
De Ligt asked for treatment after suffering the injury while Brentford played on and scored seconds later.
Taylor, who refereed the match between United and Brentford, appeared as a guest on Sky Sports show Monday Night Football. The referee has explained why he did not stop the match for De Ligt’s injury – despite loud appeals from United players, staff and supporters.
“The main consideration in this situation was, basically, my responsibility under the laws is to decide if De Ligt is seriously injured or not,” said Taylor.
“If it’s a serious injury, then it’s my responsibility to stop the game at that moment.”
“Generally, you would consider a serious injury a head injury in the main,” Taylor continued. “In this situation, because of him [De Ligt] sitting up and asking for treatment, I didn’t consider that serious. So that’s why we allowed the game to continue and the goal resulted.
“If we analyse it a little bit more, it’s probably more of a foul by De Ligt on Wissa than the other way around,” the official added. “Particularly in the Premier League, these days, there’s a greater expectation that we’re letting a lot more physical contact go.”
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