Noussair Mazraoui was slammed during Manchester United’s dramatic FA Cup fourth round win over Leicester City and told he needs to be fined a weeks’ wages for a schoolboy error.
United’s lacklustre first-half was nearly summed up by the wing-back’s foul-throw which led ITV co-commentator Lee Dixon to suggest that Ruben Amorim should take disciplinary motion.
‘Absolute foul throw. Must be fined per week’s wages for that,’ Dixon said while commentating on the sport for ITV.
‘How are you going to not throw a ball in?’
Thankfully for United and Mazraoui a good greater gaffe ultimately settled the competition in United’s favour when, with VAR not in use, Harry Maguire’s injury-time header was allowed to face despite the defender clearly standing in an offside position.
Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy was furious following what he deemed an ‘unacceptable’ and ‘unthinkable’.
The Dutchman began the season as certainly one of Erik ten Hag’s assistants and stepped up as interim manager, before being let go by Ruben Amorim and swiftly taking over the job as Foxes boss.
Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s first-half header had Leicester dreaming of a fourth-round win at Old Trafford, but substitute Joshua Zirkzee levelled after United reacted to being booed off on the break.
Time beyond regulation beckoned until Maguire headed home to make it 2-1 deep in stoppage time, sparking bedlam within the stands and fury among the many Leicester ranks.
The United defender had clearly strayed offside when the ball was sent over, but VAR will not be introduced until the subsequent round.
‘It’s a tough one to take since the game was selected a mistake,’ Van Nistelrooy said. ‘It was clear.
‘It’s not a matter of VAR, where you’ve got to take a look at millimetres. It was half a metre. It was clear.
‘The team didn’t should lose the sport in this manner because they fought, they played well, dominated the sport for an extended bit, leading 1-0 and, yeah, that’s how you’re feeling after this.’
Van Nistelrooy told ITV that Leicester were ‘not defeated in Fergie time’ but “offside time” as a promising performance by his side got here to nothing.
Put to the Dutchman that the dressing room will probably be as indignant as they’re upset after that, he said within the post-match press conference: “Yeah, we’re. We’re gutted.
‘Whenever you prepare the entire week for this game and reacting after the Everton loss and put in a performance like that, and it’s been selected an obvious, clear and obvious, mistake that’s unacceptable, unthinkable on this level.
‘However it happens to you, and we’ve got nothing else to do than pick ourselves up, also from this, again. That will not be what the team deserved.’
Van Nistelrooy left Old Trafford wondering what might have been, while United head coach Amorim acknowledged that his side rode their luck.
“We want a variety of things that’s nothing to do with luck,” the Portuguese said. “It has to do with quality of the work.
“We want to enhance every detail of the sport, our energy. My work with them must be so significantly better, but sometimes you wish just a little little bit of luck and today we had it.
“With VAR it was not a goal, and I feel it’s necessary to have since it’s fair for the sport.
“It’s really hard to lose one game within the last minute with an offside play, but we want and sometimes we deserve just a little little bit of luck.”
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