West Ham manager David Moyes was left fuming after his team’s 2-1 defeat to Liverpool, feeling that his side was “disrespected” by not being awarded a late penalty.
The incident in question saw Thiago’s arm hit the ball, but referee Chris Kavanagh did not give a penalty, and video assistant referee Neil Swarbrick did not recommend a review.
Moyes was critical of VAR, stating that “VAR, for me, showed no respect whatsoever to us”. He further added,
“You’ll probably hear them coming out with some rubbish about he [Thiago] needed to break his fall, but if you lunge, it’s your own fault for lunging and being out of control in the tackle.
When you lunge for the ball, that completely nullifies anything they’re saying about breaking your fall. I think it’s a penalty kick.”
Moyes was particularly unhappy that VAR did not at least suggest to the referee to review the incident. He said,
“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 tells me they don’t see that as even close to a decision. I’m surprised.”
Furthermore, Moyes suggested that “Somebody in VAR didn’t have enough football knowledge to understand that this could be close.
The West Ham manager was disappointed that his team, currently 14th in the table, did not get a chance to grab a vital point in their bid to stay in the Premier League.
Moyes was also critical of the current handball rule, stating that:
“The handball rule has changed dramatically, and I don’t like a lot of it, to be fair.” Although he didn’t believe that Thiago had intentionally handled the ball, he felt that “He got his hand in the way of a ball going through made by his own actions.”
Moyes felt that his team was owed an apology by VAR, stating, “They might need to apologize to the football club because we’re trying to get points to be a Premier League team.”