‘Some rubbish’ – Moyes slams VAR for showing ‘no respect’ to West Ham during defeat to Liverpool
David Moyes has ripped into VAR after West Ham United were denied a late penalty against Liverpool last night despite the ball appearing to strike Thiago Alcantara’s hand.
After initially falling behind to Lucas Paqueta’s opener, Jurgen Klopp’s side responded through goals from Cody Gakpo and Joel Matip to earn all three points but the spoils could’ve easily been shared if the Hammers were awarded a late penalty at the London Stadium.
Thiago slid in to intercept the ball inside his own box and as he used his arm to help break his fall the ball hit our No. 6 on the hand before being cleared away upfield and former Everton boss Moyes could not believe the incident wasn’t reviewed by on field referee Chris Kavanagh.
The Scotsman said (as quoted by Liverpool World): “I only had one chance. I didn’t have a chance before I spoke to the ref, but I’ve had a chance to see it since. The difference for me, and you’ll probably hear them coming out with some rubbish like he needed to break his fall but if you lunge at the ball it’s your own fault for lunging and being out of control in the tackle. Now, you can break your fall by sliding down and having to put your arm down but when you lunge for the ball. For me, that completely nullifies anything they’re talking about breaking your fall.
“I think it’s a penalty kick. I don’t know what else I’ve got to say. I think the hardest thing to take is the disrespect from VAR, that VAR wouldn’t have at least said to the referee that this might be worth having a look. That’s telling me that they don’t see that as even close to a decision. So I’m surprised, because a lot of football people, a lot of football are in here and people who write, I bet you’ve seen a lot worse than that recently.
“Somebody in VAR didn’t have enough football knowledge to understand that this could be close. Disrespect is not a football club, this is a football club and supporters who are at the game and will tell you all of the football people involved and that whoever it was chose not to send the referee. The VAR would have said, hey, you should go and check this out. VAR for me showed no respect whatsoever to us, thinking that this could be close or worth a call.”
We can understand Moyes’ frustration, maybe Klopp would’ve been the same had it been the other way round, but what can Thiago do with his arm?
The handball rule is one that causes great confusion and it appears that the definition of a handball isn’t exactly clear at the moment.
The Spaniard had to have his hand where it was because he was breaking his fall and the ball deflected towards him so in our opinion it would’ve been extremely harsh to award a penalty.
The problem is, however, that there appears to be no consistency when it comes to these decisions and we’ll probably see the same incident result in a spot kick next week.
It’s swings and roundabouts with these decisions at the end of the day but we’re delighted it went in our favour this time around because we badly needed those three points!
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