“The easy way out is to blame luck and officials, we won’t do that.” – Steve Gerrard after loss against Manchester United

“The easy way out is to blame luck and officials, we won’t do that.” – Steve Gerrard after loss against Manchester United

Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa registered yet another 3rd round exit as an early headed goal by Scott McTominay, proved decisive for Manchester United at Old Trafford on Monday.

Villa in their attempt to go level did manage to score, but the goal was disallowed.

It took more than three and a half minutes for VAR Darren England and on-field referee Michael Oliver to decide on whether Jacob Ramsey’s block on Edinson Cavani in the build-up to Ings’ finish had been both offside and interfering with play.

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Manchester United

After the defeat, Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard said that his team will not blame luck or the officials for the disallowed goal which could have saved them from the defeat against Manchester United. 

When asked about the decision, he told BBC Sport:

“How long have you got? The officials took three and a half minutes to settle that one. They have looked at two or three things in it.

“When VAR is there and they make a decision you have to accept it. There is nothing you can do to change it. The easy way out is to blame luck and the officials, we won’t do that.

“It’s very tough. We are out of the FA Cup and coming into this job I saw this competition as an opportunity to have a good run in it.

“We dominated for large parts but we were not ruthless enough.”

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“When Donny came on, from then on we controlled the game.”

Manchester United

Ralf Rangnick believes Manchester United took control of their FA Cup encounter against Aston Villa when Donny van de Beek came on.

“From the very moment when we changed to a diamond in the last 20 minutes, when Donny came on, from then on we controlled the game, we had our counter-attack situations,” said Ralf Ragnick after the match.

Manchester United switched to a midfield diamond as Van de Beek came on for Edinson Cavani in the 72nd minute to counter Aston Villa’s dominance in midfield.

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