David Moyes, manager of West Ham United, was understandably not happy with the penalty not being given at the end of the game.
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West Ham United suffered a narrow 2-1 loss to Liverpool in the Premier League, leaving them ever closer to the relegation zone. However, the home fans would have been left frustrated at not getting at least a point from the fixture. Towards the end of the match, there were huge shouts for a handball when the ball struck Thiago’s arm as he fell in the penalty box. However, no penalty was given and neither the VAR overturned the decision. That moment turned out to be an important one, as Liverpool held on for the three points.
David Moyes, manager of West Ham United, was understandably not happy with the penalty not being given. He is convinced that it should have been a spot kick for the home side. “You’ll probably hear them come out with some rubbish about, he needed to break his fall. Well if you lunge at the ball it’s your own fault for lunging and being out of control in the tackle. You can break your fall by sliding and having to put your arm down. He lunged for the ball so, for me, that completely nullifies anything about breaking the fall,” Moyes was quoted as saying by sky sports after the match.
“I think it’s a penalty kick. The hardest thing to take is the disrespect from VAR. That VAR wouldn’t have at least said to the referee this might be worth having a look. That’s telling me they don’t see that even close to a decision. I’m surprised. A lot of football people have seen a lot worse than that recently. Somebody in VAR didn’t have enough football knowledge to understand that this could be close. Whoever it was chose not to send the referee to look at it. VAR would have said ‘you should go check this out.’ So VAR showed no respect whatsoever to us for this could be close and worth a call.”
West Ham United are not entirely safe from relegation yet, hence, every point counts for them. Therefore, this latest defeat would have been a big blow for them. “I think I do quite well, yeah,” Moyes replied when asked if he understands the rule. I’ve had enough games, played football for a long time…I know when it happens. The handball rule has changed dramatically. I don’t like a lot of it, to be fair. Did the boy mean for it to hit his hand? No. But do I think he got his hand in the way of a ball going through made by his own actions. They [PGMOL] might need to apologise to the football club. We need to win points to be a Premier League team.”
Despite losing the Premier League game on Wednesday night, David Moyes believed that his side played well. “I actually think we played well. We didn’t get any points. We did a really good job. I’m not an expert on it [VAR reform] but I just think maybe if you’d been around football or seen it or played it a bit more you’d understand when people lunge – and that for that decision it’s because he lunged to get the ball. I totally understand breaking your fall, but he lunged, the ball had to be moved quickly because of the lunge, and because of that it meant his arms are out and it hits his arms. He’s got to take responsibility for his actions if that’s what you do,” he stated.
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