Howard Webb explains why Manchester United's Andre Onana wasn't sent off for 'reckless' foul against Burnley

The goalkeeper conceded a late penalty which helped the Clarets secure a potentially priceless 1-1 draw against Manchester United last weekend.

Onana made no contact with the ball as he rushed off the line to clear away a Burnley cross and subsequently poleaxed Amdouni to the ground.

While the incident wasn’t spotted on the field of play by referee John Brooks, a penalty was eventually awarded after he was ordered to review the footage on the pitchside monitor.

Bizarrely Onana avoided any further punishment, which Webb agrees was wrong, but the head of PGMOL believes a yellow would have sufficed and not a red.

“I think there’s a recklessness to it,” he told Michael Owen on the Match Officials Mic’d Up programme.

“On the day he wasn’t cautioned. I think that would have been the right outcome to show a yellow card for a reckless action.

“I don’t think it’s serious foul play though, there’s no excessive force or brutality in that challenge. But there’s an element of recklessness which would normally lead to a yellow card.”

Webb also praised the VAR process, which he believes learned the lessons of a previous incident - also involving Onana - during United’s game against Wolves at the start of the season.

“When we make an error we look at why and what we can do better,” Webb added.

“We share all of that learning with our group having discussed it with them and we acknowledged that situation in week number one at Old Trafford should have led to a VAR intervention and it didn’t.

“This is very similar, with Onana coming out, making no contact with the ball and making heavy contact with his opponent.

“It was not seen by the referee on the field. He sees [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka head the ball away but doesn’t see the contact on Amdouni, but VAR sees it pretty quickly.

“It’s a clear error not to award the penalty kick and therefore recommends that the referee looks at it on the pitchside screen.

“We called it correctly and the process was pretty efficient, so it’s a good use of VAR and thankfully this one was called quickly.”