Everton fan fury dismissed as ‘blatant and stupid’ Ashley Young slammed in loss to Manchester United
The Everton fans’ displeasure with the VAR review that saw Manchester United awarded a penalty was misplaced because Ashley Young had been “stupid” in committing a foul, according to Phil McNulty.
The BBC Sport journalist reacted via Twitter after Marcus Rashford put the visitors 2-0 up from the spot on 26 November, to call the Toffees defender’s infringement “blatant” despite referee John Brooks originally showing Anthony Martial a yellow card for a dive.
The video assistant intervened and sent the on-field official to the monitor where he overturned his original decision to howls of derision from the home supporters, on a night where they had already produced a febrile atmosphere in response to the 10-point deduction during the international break.
McNulty said: “They can be as unhappy as they like. Blatant and stupid from Young.”
Mindless
Any player can give away an unfortunate penalty in any game and the fact that this one essentially put to bed hopes that a strong Everton performance could get a huge result in the wake of the controversial commission finding obviously made it all the more painful for the supporters.
A stunning Alejandro Garnacho overhead kick in just the third minute had already set the Toffees back despite the fans doing their part from the stands.
Sean Dyche’s men had fought back admirably to dominate the rest of the half but somehow went into the break still a goal behind, although they would have hoped to make their performance pay in the second half.
Those hopes went out the window with the penalty and they were later picked off on the counter by Martial for a third.
Young, a 38-year-old free agent arrival in the summer, has extensive experience at the highest level and was supposed to add veteran know-how to the Toffees side at key moments.
But after a reckless display saw him sent off before the break at Liverpool for two bookings on 21 October he again appeared to let the occasion get to him.
Dyche has shown a lot of confidence in the former United and Aston Villa man by regularly starting him but, while the penalty is perhaps an excusable mistake, the rash foul on Garnacho in the first half that saw him booked, and the pointless reaction to the penalty-award that risked him being shown a second wasn’t.
In other Everton news, Gary Neville witnessed something in the Toffees director’s box that he’d never seen before at Goodison Park.