David Moyes has delivered his verdict on the penalty decision during the West Ham vs Anderlecht clash last night, and made somewhat of an embarrassing VAR admission.
The Hammers beat the Belgian side 2-1 last night and in truth, that scoreline really flattered the visitors. We should have won comfortably by three or four goals.
All is good though. West Ham are sitting top of group B and have already qualified through to the knockout stages, although we still need at least a point in order to guarantee winning the group.
The Hammers actually played really well last night, especially in the first-half with the likes of Said Benrahma lighting it up at the London Stadium.
West Ham were far more pragmatic in the second-half though, and perhaps we should have just gone for the Belgians.
A late penalty allowed them back into the game. But should it have even been given in the first place? And what about Ben Johnson calling for VAR which is non-existent at this stage of the competition?
David Moyes delivers West Ham vs Anderlecht penalty verdict and makes VAR admission
The Scot addressed the media last night after his side’s win in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
He was clearly happy with his side’s first-half performance but frustrated at the same time with how difficult they made it towards the end.
Moyes responded when asked whether the referee was right to award a penalty in the 89th minute for Anderlecht against Ben Johnson, as quoted by Football.London:
I thought it looked a really poor decision.
Moyes was then asked what he thought of Ben Johnson asking for VAR after the incident, when it isn’t actually in play for the Europa Conference League until the semi-final stage:
I didn’t know that myself, but I’ll be reminding him now.
Surely Moyes knew that there is no VAR in play until the semi-final stage.
Or perhaps he was alluding to the fact that he didn’t know that Johnson appealed for the decision to be checked by VAR?
It’s unclear in all fairness but what is certain is that the decision to award a penalty against West Ham was a highly debatable one.
David Moyes would have been pleased with the performance of his West Ham team vs Anderlecht on the whole. And now the challenge for his players will be to maintain the levels that they found in the first-half against the Belgians on a consistent basis.
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