Manchester United 1 Liverpool 1: Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s equaliser should not have stood and Michael Oliver is not fit enough
Oliver's assistant let him down by failing to spot Antonio Valencia standing in a clear offside position
REFEREE Michael Oliver was let down by his assistant as Manchester United’s equaliser was clearly offside.
Mick McDonough should have been in a better position to spot that Antonio Valencia had strayed following a pass by Juan Mata early in the move after an initial throw-in.
He is extremely experienced and has been a good official over the years — but he is not necessarily the fittest.
We need to think about younger assistants who can keep up with the play and spot offsides like this one.
Paul Pogba can have no complaints at all having conceded a first-half penalty. Michael was absolutely spot on. He was in the correct position and that made it very easy for him.
Pogba knew immediately what he had done and it was absolutely right to penalise him.
Michael got lucky that he missed the clear grappling offence on Jordan Henderson by Pogba later in the half as it did not cost Liverpool.
But it should only have been a free-kick anyway.
That did not deserve a yellow card as you have to manage incidents like that in big games.
Wayne Rooney can also feel fortunate to escape without a caution.
But his second-half challenge on James Milner was not excessive force.
We are seeing too many players being sent off for challenges that are not worthy of red cards.
Oliver was also the same referee who sent off Simon Francis at Bournemouth last week and maybe he does not want to go looking for trouble.