Monday Musing: Forest's Fury

Plus, the end is surely nigh for Ten Hag, and Jude does it again.

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Everton took a huge step towards Premier League survival by overcoming Nottingham Forest 2-0 on Sunday, but the major talking point from the Toffees’ win at Goodison Park was… refereeing. And, social media.

In the immediate aftermath of their defeat — which leaves them lingering a point above the drop zone with four matches remaining — Forest took to social media, specifically X (formerly Twitter) to bemoan what they saw as three clear penalty incidents that did not go their way.

“Three extremely poor decisions — three penalties not given — which we simply cannot accept.

“We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn't change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times. NFFC will now consider its options.”

Forest feel they have been on the wrong end of many refereeing decisions this season (the same could be said for Everton, Wolves, Sheffield United — the list goes on), and have hired Mark Clattenburg, the former Premier League referee, as a consultant.

But to publicly criticise the PGMOL, and on top of that, accuse a match official — in this case, VAR Stuart Attwell — of a conscious bias, is something else entirely.

Whether it is justified or not, is another matter.

The three incidents that Forest referred to all involved Ashley Young.

First, prior to Idrissa Gueye’s 29th-minute opener, Young clipped Giovanni Reyna. The United States international rather exaggerated the impact, but it was a case of “seen them given”. Referee Anthony Taylor dismissed the appeals. Attwell did not intervene.

Next, just before half-time, Callum Hudson-Odoi’s volley clearly hit Young’s outstretched arm. Again, Taylor said no penalty, and VAR did not intervene. Young was only a yard away, but it was another case of “seen them given”.

Then, in the second half, Young was beaten for pace by Hudson-Odoi. Taylor believed the 38-year-old had won the ball, but the replays suggested it was Forest’s winger who got there first. Attwell did not instruct Taylor to go to the monitor.

It would be reasonable to have sympathy with Forest, and this writer certainly does. At least one of those appeals — the last one — was a certain spot-kick. The handball would have been harsh but, as we will touch on later in this piece, a similarly flailing arm was subsequently penalised in another of Sunday’s games. Inconsistency again rearing its head when the officials have all the tools at their disposal to, at the very least, show some level of consistency across the board.

Yet the nature and tone of Forest’s post, which had garnered well over 30 million views by the time Sunday evening rolled around, has riled some in the game.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville said: “The statement is like a petulant child. It's embarrassing. But they're grabbing defeat from victory. They could say, ‘why should we sit here and be badly done to and not say anything’. You can potentially come out at the end of the game — and the manager is a great spokesman at the end of the game, so is your captain — and say that we're not accepting the quality of decisions that are going against us, and that would have a real impact.”

But, would it have an impact?

Two years ago, then-Everton manager Frank Lampard was fined by the FA for suggesting Everton had been denied a clear penalty in a Merseyside derby because it was at Anfield. Managers and players come out regularly after games and bemoan decisions, yet there is really little attention paid to it unless it impacts a huge game between teams competing at the right end of the table.

See, for example, the incident between Tottenham and Liverpool in September, where through human error, the VAR incorrectly and inadvertently confirmed an incorrect offside decision, seeing Luis Diaz have a perfectly valid goal disallowed. That mistake could well cost Liverpool the title, and it was the subject of intense debate for weeks.

Forest fans will argue that the mistake(s) by the officials at Goodison Park could well send them down this season, but had their club relied purely on players and their manager to take up the fight, it would be glossed over.

Where Neville does have a point is the tone of the post. It is almost unbelievable that such a statement has been released over official club channels, and that in it, Forest have directly questioned the integrity of the PGMOL. There will be consequences for that.

Forest will hope to have ruffled feathers, but with the club due in front of an Appeals Board this week, to fight against the four-point deduction that was handed their way in March for a PSR breach, perhaps they may have kept their powder dry.

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TEN HAG IS DONE

In the 58th minute of Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final meeting with Coventry City at Wembley, Manchester United were cruising.

Bruno Fernandes had just put them 3-0 up, adding to first-half goals from Scott McTominay and Harry Maguire. The Red Devils were teeing up a final against holders and their local rivals Manchester City, who overcame Chelsea on Saturday.

Yet 37 minutes later, United were headed for extra time — Coventry having come from three goals down and the Red Devils’ defence having capitulated to a Championship side.