PGMOL chief Howard Webb has been told to speak directly to one of his Premier League referees after a controversial decision was made involving Manchester United.
Manchester United have been inconsistent in the Premier League so far this season and are hoping to secure a win against Wolves on Monday night.
They were disappointing last week against West Ham as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford against the underperforming Hammers.
That clash did see Andrew Kitchen referee his fifth Premier League outing and his first in charge of United. It was not the best display from the 29-year-old.
Major questions were raised when Kitchen failed to send of ex-United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka for a second bookable offence on Patrick Dorgu.
Webb told to speak to referee after ‘absolute nonsense’ involving United
Kitchen’s failure to send off Wan-Bissaka was described as an ‘absolute nonsense’ by former referee Kieth Hackett, who has claimed that Howard Webb must speak directly to the young official.
Speaking to Football Insider on The Final Whistle, Hackett said: “I was just fooled by it. Watching it, I was saying, ‘You’re off, mate. You’re going to have an early Christmas present,’ but nothing happened.
“The second yellow was worse than the first, and the second yellow was more like orange. On its own, I could have had it sit as a red. This was absolute nonsense. When we have situations like this, it’s important for Howard Webb to talk to the referees.
“He should say, ‘Talk me through this situation.’ Why didn’t you issue a yellow card? What have you seen that negates a yellow card?“
Refereeing standards are concerning
It is hard to be critical of officiating when United are also playing poorly. They didn’t take advantage of a red card against Everton.
But the failure to send of Wan-Bissaka was comical and VAR cannot intervene because of the rules in place. You’d struggle to find someone to make sense of it all.
The decisions aren’t just going against United though. Every week it seems like different teams are on the wrong end of an awful decision. The standard is simply just too low for referees.
It is also difficult to figure out how to fix these problems, but that is something Webb needs to focus on because things are not improving.
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