Enzo Fernández

But yeah, as you said, what...

How that goal was given, it was ridiculous, wasn't it? Enzo Fernandez like throwing himself at it.

Oh, it's very difficult to watch.

But I think they've been pretty lucky so far to have got, as I say, very lucky to come through with 12 points.

I didn't think we'd miss certain players quite so much, and I don't think miss...

We...

I don't think we miss Enzo Fernandez as such, but You wonder if he played against all these other games, would we have had a bit more control? 'Cause...

But the, but Moises hasn't been there either, so it's really hard, isn't it? You've got 200 million pound players there that we signed, and neither of them have played all season.

Well, Maresca, I think you have to take your medicine a bit.

City were really good in that second half with... with 10 men they kept the ball admirable admirably they defended really well but they won the game because of a goal that was not fair um if you didn't catch my fan focus have a look at that we did a bit of a deep dive into the reasons why that goal you know was such an egregious error and Howard Webb has come out and acknowledged that mistake and said that he was, quote, really disappointed by the decision-making process there and by the fact that the referees, the VAR, entirely overlooked the fact that Enzo Fernandes was in an offside position and interfering with play.

So I think Enzo Marasca's deflecting a bit from the fact that, you know, it's all a big game with referees, isn't it? Mikel Arteta came out after the Arsenal game and criticised the refs after we'd won the match.

um

So in that sense, you do have time to take a breath and think about what you're looking at.

And in their rush, they conveniently didn't notice Enzo Fernandes, who's standing here and in the next frame makes a diving attempt at the ball, which he just misses.

Obviously, Martinez, caught in a kind of 2v1 situation, has to go with Fernandes.

And therefore, Harland is left free at the back post.

How can that be deemed as not interfering with play? Goes to the back post, Haaland knocks it in.

They give a goal because Enzo Fernandes didn't make any contact, and apparently wasn't interfering with play at all because he didn't make any connection with the fucking diving header that he tried to make, and we had to mark him to try and prevent him from getting onto said diving header from cross that was meant for the guy trying to execute a fucking diving header.

Like, this is just embarrassing at this point, and it's not an excuse for the loss.

Man United should be better at breaking down 10 men, and now there is real pressure on Michael Carrick where he needs to win the next two games.

You can just watch the clips of these two things and more or less pretend as if you've watched the whole game, which is the flashpoint between Bruno Fernandes and Phil Foden, which decides, was it a red card? Should Bruno have been sent off? Then the offside...

that wasn't goal scored by Haaland, but the Enzo Fernandez interference on Martinez.

So we could have literally a 30-minute discussion about those two things and refereeing VAR, a philosophical discussion about different things, rather than actually discussing why was it that Manchester United couldn't beat Manchester City with 10 men.

I'll present those two things, Bruno, Foden, and then the Haaland goal, or I'll just present the game to you.

They played with Rashford up front who, well actually they played Cooney up front, but they played Rashford who, even though he wasn't actually that bad the other day, but it was just his aura just doesn't sit well in my eyes in that team.

and then City done what City do in fairness they kept the ball well they battled well in midfield and then Haaland got the winner which was in all honesty a disgrace how they can say Enzo Fernandes well it's not even it's not even that they said Enzo Fernandes didn't effectively it's the fact that he just wasn't there It was the fact that they just skipped past him.

Like, it was so obvious.

Sandro Martinez would have got the ball.

And this is where the geometry meets subjective human reality.

Enzo Fernandez was in a centrally located position in the penalty area.

And crucially, unlike Hullen, Fernandez actually was in an offside position when the cross came in.

As the ball traveled across the face of the goal, Fernandez made a distinct movement to attempt to play the ball.

They don't see the IT access logs at Stockley Park or the disconnected data networks or the extensive conflict of interest declarations that referees have to sign.

I see where this connects.

If the fans are psychologically primed by all these advertisements to think about betting and money, the second a completely inexplicable VAR error happens, like ignoring Enzo Fernandez in the derby, the fan's brain automatically connects the invisible error in the booth to the highly visible commercial sponsor on the pitch.

Exactly.

Só que a matemática não é a única língua falada no futebol, né? E é aí que o protocolo humano simplesmente afundou o navio lá em Old Trafford, porque tinha um segundo elemento, tipo um elemento fantasma nessa jogada.

O Enzo Fernandes.

Exatamente.

O Enzo Fernandes do City tava plantado no meio da área e ele tava claramente em posição de impedimento.

E ele não ficou parado como uma estátua.

Ele fez um movimento de corpo tentando disputar a bola que passou por ele, e esse movimento alterou o comportamento do defensor, que era o Lisandro Martínez.

Irônica por quê?

Porque, como árbitro de campo naquele derby, o Oliver era a autoridade máxima.

Sauf que l'algorithme, qui était focalisé sur le buteur, a complètement oblitéré une variable humaine fondamentale dans cette équation.

Il a oublié la présence d'un autre joueur sur le terrain, Enzo Fernandez.

Et c'est là que nous basculons dans la fameuse zone grise dont parle l'audit.

Le rapport d'incident, qui a été très largement relayé et disséqué par les journalistes sportifs, notamment par The Guardian, détaille la mécanique précise de la faute.

Enzo Fernandez, le milieu de terrain de City, était positionné plein centre dans la surface de réparation au moment exact du centre de Gvardiol.

Et lui, géométriquement parlant, par rapport à la ligne, il était indéniablement en position de hors-jeu.

Oui, mais être en position de hors-jeu, ce n'est pas une faute en soi dans le football.

Rien de moins.