Howard Webb backs Dalot booking call in derby

• Howard Webb said officials were right not to upgrade Diogo Dalot’s early booking to a red card in Saturday’s Manchester derby
• Webb argued slow motion and freeze frames exaggerate contact, and said the incident looked different at full speed
• Alan Shearer said VAR “got that terribly wrong” and called it “a clear red card”

Premier League referees’ chief Howard Webb has rejected claims that match officials made a major error by not sending off Manchester United defender Diogo Dalot in the 2-0 derby win over Manchester City.

Dalot was booked in the 11th minute by referee Anthony Taylor for a high challenge on Jeremy Doku. Dalot lunged to intercept the ball, got a touch, then caught Doku with his studs on the winger’s knee. VAR Craig Pawson backed Taylor’s decision, judging the contact to be “glancing and not with excessive force”.

Speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up, Webb said the referee and assistants saw enough in real time to treat it as reckless rather than serious foul play.

“The officials on the field saw the actions of Dalot, they saw him stretch forward with his foot, he touches the ball, and then there’s contact on Jeremy Doku,” Webb said. “They deemed that to be a reckless action and therefore worthy of a yellow card.

“I know other people think it’s clearly red. I don’t agree, I think there’s a mix of considerations.

“I know that when we look at this, we see that the point of contact is on the knee, but we also have to factor in speed, force and intensity.

“You’ll not see many red cards in the Premier League for serious foul play that don’t involve those things.

“Now, we evaluate those things through a full-speed view of the incident. Without looking at it at full speed, you get kind of a distorted view. You don’t get a true picture of how much force and speed there was in the challenge.

“That foot touches the knee, comes off pretty quickly. We can see on slow-mo that it does touch that knee.

“But at full speed, when you play it in real time, you can see there’s not a great deal of speed in the action. Not a lot of intensity.

“We were heavily criticised a few years ago for using slow motion and freeze frames, because people said this is not reality, it’s not how the game is played.

“When you slow it down it can look a lot worse and it does. When you freeze frame it, you can make a lot of situations look like red card offences.

“So, it’s difficult for me to hear people make a judgment on this just by analysing freeze frames and slow motion, coming to the consideration that it’s red on that basis.”

Webb’s comments came as former players continued to argue the challenge should have led to a dismissal, given the point of contact and the potential injury risk. Alan Shearer was among those who felt VAR should have intervened.

“I think VAR got that terribly wrong. For me that was a clear red card,” Shearer told BBC Sport.

“Forget about whether the contact was ‘glancing’ or not. I can understand why the referee hasn’t given it, it might have been difficult for him to see it, but when the VAR has two professionals looking at that, it should have been a very easy decision to give a red card.”

Webb said he understands why some see a red card, but believes the threshold for intervention was not met, and that either outcome should have been allowed to stand once the referee made his call.

“Yes, it could be red, but you have to think about the need to look at it at full speed,” Webb added.

“Therefore, I think in this situation it was right to leave it as the referee’s call. If red had been given, I would have expected the red card to stand as well.

“Is there excessive force? Some will say yes, I am not quite there but I can see that there could be. It’s a subjective judgement.

“You see it at full speed, is there excessive force? I’m not sure, maybe, but I’m absolutely aligned that once that decision’s taken on field that we leave it as referee’s call and we don’t intervene with the video.”