Michael Carrick slams ‘shocking’ red card as Manchester United fall to Leeds United

Interim manager Michael Carrick criticised the decision to send off Lisandro Martínez as “shocking” following Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat to Leeds United here at Old Trafford on Monday.

Martínez was dismissed after an incident involving Dominic Calvert-Lewin, with referee Paul Tierney consulting VAR official John Brooks before issuing a red card for an apparent hair-pull.

The Argentine appeared stunned by the decision and continued protesting as he left the pitch.

Carrick argued the contact was minimal and unintentional, insisting there was no aggression in Martínez’s actions.

"Lisandro, to start with, he gets an arm in the face, so he's kind of off balance in the kind of off grappling," Carrick said.

"He almost just goes to touch him and grab his shirt, and he ends up catching his head, touches the back of his hair, the bobble comes out and you get a red card?

He warned that such interpretations could set a worrying precedent for the game, raising questions about whether similar incidents should warrant dismissal.

"It's not aggressive. There's no jolt. There's no tug. There's no sudden movement. He kind of touches it and glances through it,” he added.

"You've just got to be careful where the game's going if we're giving red cards for that. It's a shocking decision, absolutely shocking."

Leeds capitalised on the numerical advantage, with Noah Okafor scoring twice in the first half to give the visitors control. Casemiro pulled one back after the break, but United were unable to recover.

The result marked Leeds’ first league win at Old Trafford in over two decades and only their second away victory of the Premier League season. Meanwhile, United missed the opportunity to strengthen their push for a top-six finish.