Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has angrily hit out at suggestions from fellow managers that Manchester United are winning cheap penalties and have been favoured by VAR this season.
The United boss reacted strongly after Chelsea manager Frank Lampard warned his players to be careful when defending inside the penalty area during today’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
Lampard singled out United midfielder Bruno Fernandes, stating: ‘He is very clever in his movement. We saw that at Aston Villa to make something feel like a penalty where maybe it isn’t.’
Spurs boss Jose Mourinho also complained his former club had been ‘fortunate more than once’ with VAR this season after Crystal Palace had a goal ruled out and saw Wilfried Zaha’s penalty appeal rejected at Selhurst Park on Thursday.
United have been awarded 18 penalties this season while seven opposition goals have been overturned by VAR. Now Solskjaer fears there is a campaign to try to influence referees against them.
‘I will defend my players 100 per cent,’ said Solskjaer. ‘They are not divers; none of them try to con the referee at all. We’ve earned our right to any decision this season. It seems like there’s an agenda to try and influence people.’
Instead, the United boss listed a series of incidents in which he considered his team unlucky.
‘I can talk about red cards not given in games against Southampton and West Ham when we have lost points,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen the refs’ reports and they have apologised for getting the wrong decision against us. Let’s talk about the red card [Oriol] Romeu should have had against us when he got Mason Greenwood crippled.
‘It’s the same when Mark Noble should have been sent off half a yard in front of me against West Ham earlier in the season when he absolutely battered [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka.
‘I don’t want to sound like a certain manager talking about facts but the penalty we got against Tottenham in the last minute that was taken away from us — that might be two points for us.
‘We have also had a few decisions overturned from being against us to being for us which means the original decision was against us.
‘There are too many people talking, trying to influence people and I don’t want to try to influence people.’
‘If you have quick feet like Dan James, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial or Mason Greenwood and you get tackles in and around the box, some ankles could have been broken for our players. I just want them to be protected.
‘I trust our referees not to be influenced. We just need to keep playing the football we do and let the referees do the refereeing. As for offside decisions, they are clear: on or off.’
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