Manchester United was awarded a penalty against Fulham via VAR (Image: Getty)
Gary Reinker criticized the penalty decision during a draw between Manchester United and Fulham on Sunday, saying he was confused as to which one was awarded a spot kick. The Red Devils were given a penalty during the early period of their trip to Craven Cottage following the ruling that Calvin Bassy had defeated Mason Mount in the box during a corner kick.
However, the typically reliable Bruno Fernandez sent the effort by sailing the crossbar from 12 yards, with neither side finding the net until after the interval. Renee Yoro appeared to have broken the deadlock with a deflected header in the 58th minute, which was later recognized as Rodrigo Muniz’s own goal. After being introduced as an alternative, Emile Smith Lowe leveled the issue in the 73rd minute. The match ended 1-1, with United securing the opening points of the campaign, whilst both sides pushing a decisive breakthrough.
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However, Rhineker was far from impressed by his journey to West London and expressed confusion over Val’s ruling. While there is a football podcast while analyzing the remaining United’s difficulties, the former England striker said: “They got penalty.
“You know, you go to the game and you watch the game. There’s a corner, the ball is cleared, the ball goes up to the other end of the pitch, and Fulham is under attack.
“Then the REF suddenly stops and you’re thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’ Now I know that experiences are different at home, but if you are on the ground, you are looking at mine.
“I didn’t even know if it was the end or the end of it, or if you didn’t know what was going on. So it’s a really bad experience for the fans.”
Gary Reinker was confused by Val (Image: YouTube)
Lineker added: “I know now they are telling you why they changed their decisions, what he did in the end.
“But Bruno missed it anyway and burned it on the bar. But they actually have to tell them what’s going on for fans on the ground to hear it.
When co-host Alan Shearer questioned Rinker’s thoughts about the penalty decision itself, critics agreed that it was the right call to award it. The 64-year-old continued to praise Reuben Amorim’s team compared to his previous campaign, despite United not being able to secure a victory in any game during the previous 2025/26 season.
He added: “United started really well, I thought, ‘Oh, hello’. Because I thought they had shown something last week.
Rennie Yoro thought he had secured a United winner. (Image: Getty)
“The other one burned up on the bar and he said that he should have scored, but it was a good save from Leno and thought, ‘Well, there’s something here.’ ”
Looking back at the wasted opportunities, boss Amorim confessed that he hasn’t experienced the “urgency” that his supporters are working on, but believes that the team must handle the match more effectively when they are in front.
The Portuguese manager speaks to MUTV after the final mouth whi. “In this moment we need to think about performance. Of course, I’m not crazy. I know what the players who play on a team have to win every game.
“But I have felt in the past that I didn’t feel any lack of urgency in this moment. What I felt was that I had to miss a penalty, miss some opportunities, then score and adhere to this goal.
Reuben Amorim vowed to help his players manage the game better (Image: Getty)
“It may be the urgency on the other side, not the lack of urgency. We need to focus on the movements and how we have to play the game.”
Amorim added: “That’s normal (Fulham is dangerous from the corners). I think we tried to push high, and we need to understand that we need to manage the game once or twice and wait for our opponent.
“It’s very easy for our opponents to mark us, and we always wanted to press. We wanted to do that, but sometimes we get better at the moment, we get to understand the game and try to drop a little and start pressure, so we have more space than we do when we’re attacking.”
Meanwhile, Fulham boss Marco Silva launched an attack that attacked the host during the match, particularly with regard to United’s targets.
Marco Silva was also unhappy with Val. (Image: Getty)
Speaking to the post-game media, Silva said: “I want to explain everything about the VAR decision this afternoon, but I can’t, because they were different in many different ways, and I saw two fouls at the same time.
“Then my second goal (United’s goal). I think what I saw was something everyone saw in the stadium. Everyone in the world saw it. Two players were quarantined at the corner, one player pushed the ball towards the head.
“I hope these types of decisions are always the same. That’s easy.”
United will be on a trip to the town of League 2 side Grimsby in the second round of the Carabao Cup, followed by a home game against Burnley, which was newly declared on August 30th. Meanwhile, Silva’s team will face Bristol City in their next Cup match before facing a challenging encounter with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
