Anel Ahmedhodzic disagreed with the decision to send his Sheffield United teammate Mason Holgate off for his tackle on Brighton‘s Kaoru Mitoma.
The collision came within the opening 15 minutes of the clash at Bramall Lane, which the Seagulls went on to win 5-0, and Holgate’s punishment was upgraded from a yellow card to a straight red following intervention by the VAR team.
Jamie Redknapp labelled the foul as an ‘assault’, and ‘one of the worst tackles I’ve seen in years’, but Holgate’s defensive partner Ahmedhodzic was among those who disagreed with the Sky Sports pundit, describing it as a ‘fair tackle’.
In a post-match interview with Sky, Ahmedhodzic described the result as a ‘horrible feeling’.
‘I think we started the game off well’, he explained. ‘Everything goes according to gameplan, create a few chances.
Sheffield United’s Anel Ahmedhodzic disagreed with the red card shown to Mason Holgate
Holgate was dismissed after 13 minutes for a tackle on Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma on Sunday
‘Then we get that red card, and it kills the game. Killed our game, killed our plan, killed everything we worked for.
‘If you ask my opinion, that’s not a red card. I don’t want to say more.’
When pushed on the matter, Ahmedhodzic added: ‘From what I’ve seen on the pitch, I don’t think [so]. But maybe in the replay, it seems harsher than it is.
‘On the pitch, what I saw was a fair tackle.’
Holgate, on loan at Sheffield United from Everton, became the quickest player to be sent off this season, with the dismissal timed at just 13 minutes.
Brighton were immediately outraged by the tackle, but referee Stuart Atwell showed a yellow card before VAR showed him the incident on the pitch-side screen.
It was the earliest straight red card in the Premier League since Nathaniel Chalobah’s dismissal for Fulham against Newcastle in October 2022.
Sheffield United sit in last place in the Premier League table, seven points adrift of safety
Sheffield United sit in last place in the table, seven points adrift of safety, and with many of the teams above having a game in hand.
The Blades travel to Wolves next weekend before a home game against Arsenal on March 4.
