Smith: Moss could not wait to send me off
Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has claimed Jon Moss “couldn’t wait” to show him a red card after a confrontation over the referee’s decision to allow Manchester City’s first goal to stand in his side’s 2-0 defeat last night.
Smith and his coaching staff were furious that Rodri was not ruled offside in the build-up to Bernardo Silva’s opener.
The manager was informed after the game that the decision was the correct one under the laws of the game as the Villa centre-half Tyrone Mings had tried to control the ball and turned sideways before losing it.
But Smith remained incensed and insisted the law was wrong before going on to claim that Moss had treated him unfairly.
“I still don’t understand the rule if I’m honest,” said Smith, whose side pushed City all the way despite only returning to training three days ago after a Covid outbreak. “I don’t think anyone can tell me why a goal
has been given. He has taken advantage of an offside position. He comes back and tackles Tyrone Mings from behind. What was Tyrone supposed to do, just let it go through? He was 10 metres offside. Do you just stand there all the time now?
“I thought they’d at least go over to the screen as it looked clear offside. I looked at the screen myself and it looked like a clear offside.
“When I realised they weren’t even going to take a look I told the fourth official I thought they had got juggling balls for Christmas.
“If that’s the law then definitely [there is a fault with the law]. He’s standing offside and taking an unfair advantage from that.
“Nobody in this stadium thinks that goal should have stood, so you can’t tell me it should have stood and that tells you there is a fault with the law.”
Smith’s anger on the touchline was clear, but after he was shown a yellow card by Moss, a second barbed comment led to him receiving a straight red.
“You have a [former] referee in the BT studio who said it was offside and then changes his mind. Hence me saying you must have got juggling balls for Christmas.
“I can remember what the red was for. It doesn’t need to be censored because there were no swear words.
“He came over and said he was interpreting the laws of the game and I said, ‘Well you should have done that earlier in the game’.”
“I think I got treated rather unfairly because I’ve seen a lot worse things being said to Jon Moss and he hasn’t dealt with it like that before.
“It looked like he couldn’t wait to show me a yellow and a red card. But I’m annoyed I got involved in something I shouldn’t have done.”
Despite Smith’s anger, his opposite number, Pep Guardiola, was predictably rather more sanguine in his reaction.
“I didn’t watch it back on the TV, but I know they [Villa] complained, but Var is there,” the City manager said.
“Many times with long balls, when players are offside [behind you], then you don’t go backwards, you clear the ball and try to launch a counter-attack.
“I don’t know exactly the rule, but Var is there. I’m pretty sure, if it was offside the goal would be disallowed. I didn’t watch it, but in general the way we played was outstanding and we deserved to win.”