Soungoutou Magassa came into the West Ham United playing eleven against Liverpool on Sunday in the Premier League at the London Stadium.
West Ham lost 2-0 to Liverpool on the day, with Magassa playing the full 90 minutes for the home side.
He partnered Freddie Potts in the middle of the park, while Lucas Paqueta and Mateus Fernandes played in an advanced role.
Matt Holland believes Soungoutou Magassa deserved yellow card vs Liverpool
Magassa appeared on the brink of a booking right from the first half and he finally got one in the second period.
He made a bookable challenge on Ryan Gravenberch, but the referee decided that it wasn’t a foul and waved the play on.
However, in the second half, the 22-year-old was shown a yellow card for his challenge on Dominik Szoboszlai.
Magassa and the rest of the West Ham United players not only disagreed with the booking but also believed that he had cleanly won the ball.
This led to some controversy and the commentators debated the decision amongst themselves on the Premier League world feed.
Matt Holland, a BBC pundit, said: “That decision, he wins the ball. Studs are showing. That’s the reason it’s been given a yellow card, so I can understand that call.”
Did Magassa deserve the yellow card?
Magassa did appear to lunge into Szoboszlai even though he successfully won the ball.
While it did not endanger the Hungarian’s safety, these are the kinds of decisions that go against the player without the ball.
It would not have been flagged by the VAR had it not been given, as these are the kinds of calls left to the on-field referee’s discretion.
There will be aspects of Magassa’s game that Nuno would not be particularly pleased with, but he will be happy that the French midfielder is capable of handling the physicality of the Premier League.
The 22-year-old will have better games, surely, but it’s hard to argue against this booking.
It remains to be seen if he retains his place in Nuno’s playing eleven against Manchester United on Thursday night.
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