Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag believes Crystal Palace forward Jordan Ayew should have been sent off during Palace’s defeat at Old Trafford. United boss Ten Hag had his say on the decision and thinks that Ayew should have been sent off for his involvement in it.
Erik ten Hag said: “This team sticks together but of course, you have to control your emotions. But it’s really difficult in such a moment and I see two teams fighting each other. I see two teams of players crossing the line and then one player gets picked out, gets sent off. And for me, that’s not right. The player from Crystal Palace takes a big risk by this foul that he gets badly injured by pushing him across the line and you know the pitches here. And then everyone is reacting, Crystal Palace and Manchester United players, and not only Casemiro. He (Ayew) was one of the players who did even worse than Casemiro. Casemiro, you freeze the moment, I think within the shot he’s crossing the line there, I do definitely. And you have to be consistent as a VAR. Last week we missed Christian Eriksen by a bad foul – no interfering by VAR. [Jean-Philippe] Mateta is elbowing [Lisandro] Martinez, he is running with two weeks with [a bandage] on his eyebrow and [VAR is] not interfering. So I see this is not right and this is in the game and an influence on the game but also coming games. You see in this moment that the team spirit and also once again, they have to control their emotions and you can’t cross lines, there are certain standards you have to keep there as a team. But also you have to protect each other when players like Christian Eriksen last week, it’s not really as a colleague that you want to get another player such an injury, and it was the same with Antony today. So then you have to stand as a team and that’s what they did. But you have to keep yourself in control because we are role models. It’s more the point when everything is about consistency but you don’t want to lose, obviously. Players and colleagues are hurting each other that bad like the player last week did against Christian Eriksen and the player from Crystal Palace – he started this, he took a big risk by injuring Antony. My interpretation is the same, you say the same things. That’s what we’re talking about, when Casemiro was sent off in this incident. Definitely (Ayew should have been sent off).”
