Michael Carrick has slammed the “terrible” refereeing call that saw Lisandro Martinez sent off in Man United’s defeat to Leeds, with Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher sympathetic to Man United’s head coach.
Martinez is now facing a three-match ban after being sent off after VAR noticed Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair being momentarily pulled during Manchester United’s 2-1 loss at Old Trafford, with referee Paul Tierney sent to the review monitor.
The Argentine, who was grappling with Calvert-Lewin at the time of the incident, looked bewildered as he left the pitch, and Carrick was furious that such a simple and, in his eyes, unintentional incident was punished so harshly.
“It wasn’t a tug, it wasn’t a pull, it wasn’t aggressive. He just touched it and got sent off. The worst part is that he was sent off to cover it up as a clear mistake. It’s shocking,” he told Sky Sports.
“It made him lose his balance and he touched half the back of his hair and it pulled his bob down and it looked like this – I don’t even know what that looks like.
“It’s the second game in a row that the decision went against us, and that game was one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”
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Watch for free: Highlights of the Premier League match between Manchester United and Leeds.
Man United deservedly led 2-0 at half-time thanks to a Noah Okafor double, but Carrick was further irritated by the decision to allow his man of the match to stand early in the game after Calvert-Lewin caught defender Lenny Yolo in the face with his arm in the build-up.
“We didn’t start the game particularly well. We conceded a goal because Lenny Yolo hit us in the back of the head with a forearm,” he added.
“They didn’t make the decision to turn it over, and that was the big moment of the game. We just didn’t quite get our rhythm and didn’t get going. We had some chances, but we just didn’t do it for the majority of the first half.”
Carla: People will think, “No red card, just behave.”
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Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane agree Lisandro Martinez did not deserve a sending off for pulling Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair.
Martinez is not the first Premier League player to be sent off in similar circumstances this season, after Everton’s Michael Keane was given a red penalty for pulling Wolves forward Tolu Alokodea’s hair in January.
Guidance in the 2025-26 Premier League handbook, which was added in response to last season’s incident, states that players will be sent off if they “obviously forcefully pull an opponent’s hair”, but Carragher felt this did not apply to either Keane or Martinez’s situation.
“Going back a few years, I think Marc Cucurella took something out of Romero’s corner kick and nothing happened to Romero,” he told Monday Night Football. “I think the officials knew what to do.”
“From that era, it was like, ‘Wait a minute, if someone does that, it’s a red card.’ And if someone actually pulls someone’s hair like that, that’s 100 per cent right to me. I think someone got sent off for pulling someone’s hair.”
“But I don’t think the Michael Keane game (against Wolves in January) was a red card, I think it was actually much softer.
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Gary Neville believes Man United’s defeat to Leeds was a reality check for Michael Carrick’s side.
“He’s going for the ball. Calvert-Lewin hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s just sticking his arm out. Martinez is just trying to grapple, trying to grab onto something. It could have been his shirt, it could have been something.”
“I think he understands it for about half a second. We go over the rules and we all agree on them. But Howard Webb delivers some of my favorite lines about certain situations. Sometimes it’s not just about the rulebook, it’s about what the game wants.”
“I don’t think any football fan, player or manager watching that thought it was a red card. Everyone at the game saw that and thought it wasn’t a red card. Behave.”
Former Man United defender Gary Neville disagreed, feeling that given the increased level of scrutiny this season, Martinez should have known he was responsible for pulling all sorts of hair.
He said on the Gary Neville Podcast: “It’s not the equivalent of spitting, but it’s kind of in the category of things you wouldn’t do knowing you’d get a red card.”
“It’s a bit soft. It’s like a technical red card. It’s not a violent act, but as a footballer it’s one of those things where you don’t pull someone’s hair.”
“The moment he was spotted by VAR he would obviously be sent off and that is the way it is so they will have to play the next three games without him.”
