Michael Carrick condemned Lisandro Martinez’s red card as “one of the worst” refereeing decisions he has seen after Manchester United lost 2-1 to Leeds at Old Trafford. Martinez was dismissed after VAR flagged a brief tug on Dominic Calvert-Lewin; referee Paul Tierney went to the pitchside monitor, overturned the on-field decision and sent Martinez off. The defender now faces a three-match ban.
Martinez looked bewildered as he left the pitch, having been engaged with Calvert-Lewin in a physical moment. Carrick said the contact was minimal and unintentional and was furious that it was punished so severely. He described it as a fleeting touch — even suggesting Martinez merely brushed the back of the opponent’s hair — and called the referee’s intervention a shocking and heavy-handed application of the rules.
United went into the interval 2-0 down after a Noah Okafor double, and Carrick also expressed frustration that Leeds’ opening goal stood despite an earlier incident in which Calvert-Lewin appeared to brush Leny Yoro in the face with his arm during the build-up. Carrick argued that officials overturned one action but not the other, a decision that he said was pivotal to the match and left his side struggling for rhythm.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher sympathised with Carrick’s view, saying many would see Martinez’s dismissal as too harsh. Carragher acknowledged that clear, forceful hair-pulling should be a red card, but felt the Martinez and Michael Keane sendings-off (Keane’s coming against Wolves in January) were softer cases that did not meet that threshold. He referenced the Premier League’s updated 2025–26 guidance, which states players “will be sent off if they are clearly pulling the hair of an opponent with force,” and suggested the incidents in question fell short of that standard.
Former United defender Gary Neville took a different stance on his podcast, arguing players must be aware of the increased scrutiny and avoid any hair‑pulling, even if not violent. He described the action as something players should not do because it risks a red card, and accepted that once VAR spotted the contact, dismissal was likely.
Martinez is among several players this season to be dismissed for hair-pulling, and the debate over consistency and where to draw the line between a technical red and punishment reserved for clear, forceful pulls remains unresolved.