Maresca's Frustration: VAR Overshadows City’s Derby Victory

Enzo Maresca did not hide his irritation. Not at Manchester United. Not at the Old Trafford atmosphere. At the conversation.

A derby won with 10 men, a statement performance in hostile territory, and all anyone wanted to talk about was a frozen VAR frame and a still image of Erling Haaland.

“It’s quite poor,” the Manchester City manager said, the words carrying more bite than volume.

Ten men, one moment – and the wrong headline

Haaland’s decisive strike on the hour sealed a 1-0 win at Old Trafford on Sunday, City’s fourth straight league victory. On the pitch, it looked like the classic City story: resilience, control, and a ruthless edge, even after Phil Foden’s red card left them a man down for roughly 70 to 75 minutes.

On the screens, it became something else entirely.

Initially, the assistant’s flag and the referee’s decision ruled Haaland offside. VAR intervened, drew its lines, and found the Norwegian just onside. Goal given. City celebrated. United protested. The derby swung blue.

Then came the twist. The referees’ body later confirmed the VAR team had missed a separate offside offence by Enzo Fernandez, who had dived at the ball in a central position and was judged, on review, to have interfered with opponents. The goal should not have stood.

The admission lit the fuse. Debate raged. The decision, the lines, the protocols – all of it overshadowed what Maresca felt should have been the real story.

“Talking about one episode or one moment after that game when we played for 70-75 minutes with 10 players, I think it’s quite poor,” he said before City’s Carabao Cup third-round tie against Norwich City. “I think the performance was unbelievable, and I’m pleased with the performance.”

The message was clear: judge the 90 minutes, not the still frame.

Maresca’s reminder: it cuts both ways

Maresca did not deny the error. He did not pretend the officials had got it right. Instead, he placed it in a longer, sharper context.

“There is knowledge that there was a mistake and that’s all. Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes against you. It’s football,” he said, shrugging off the storm rather than stoking it.

Then he went back in time.

Maresca, who returned to City in the summer to succeed Pep Guardiola, hasn’t forgotten what he saw from the other side of the technical area. As Guardiola’s assistant, he watched a key VAR call go against City in a 2-1 defeat to United in January 2023.

“Three years ago when I was here [as Guardiola’s assistant], it happened the exact same against United,” he said. “The goal was not a regular goal and no one apologised. We are still waiting for the apology for that.”

Same fixture. Same sense of injustice. Very different reaction.

For Maresca, that history matters. If City are to be scrutinised now, he wants the ledger balanced. Mistakes, he argues, are not new and not unique. They are part of a broader pattern, not a single scandal attached to Haaland’s right boot.

Webb’s admission and officials “hurting”

The refereeing body has already held its hands up. Pro Ref chief Howard Webb publicly accepted that the VAR team failed to check whether Fernandez was offside before Haaland scored.

“I was really disappointed with this outcome. We all are,” Webb said on ‘Match Officials Mic’d Up’. “None more so than the officials themselves. They take a lot of personal pride in what they do and they’re obviously hurting now, having fallen short in this situation.”

The apology arrived this time. The damage, in terms of trust and narrative, is harder to repair.

For City, the league table shows three points. For Maresca, the tape shows a side that bent but did not break, that ran Old Trafford with 10 men and still found a way to win.

The manager’s frustration lies not in the acknowledgement of error, but in the way that error has consumed everything else. In his eyes, the derby became a case study in City’s mentality. The discourse turned it into a case study in VAR.

He will move on to Norwich and the Carabao Cup. The question is whether the conversation around his team will ever move on as quickly from the next controversy as it did from this performance.