Lucas Paqueta had an afternoon to forget as West Ham suffered a loss to Liverpool at the London Stadium on Sunday.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side failed to capitalise on Liverpool’s form going into this one, with West Ham United losing 2-0.
Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo scored for the visitors, ensuring that they moved up the Premier League table, leaving the Hammers in 17th place.
Matt Holland slams Lucas Paqueta for red card in West Ham United vs Liverpool
Paqueta picked up a yellow card for dissent after he disagreed with Darren England’s decision to give a foul against him.
The Brazil international let the on-field referee know his frustrations and he was duly given a booking for his antics.
Instead of calming down and walking away from the situation, the 28-year-old doubled down and continued to argue with England.
After a few seconds, the official’s patience wore thin and he brandished a second yellow before reaching out to his pocket for a red card.
As seen in the Sky Sports footage, Jarrod Bowen and Mateus Fernandes were both next to him, but did little to pour cold water on the situation.
Reacting to this on the Premier League world feed, Matt Holland, a BBC pundit, said: “Ridiculous. Stupid from Paqueta. I still think Jarrod Bowen should have done better to take him away.
“He [England] had no option but to show him the yellow.”
How can Nuno deal with the Paqueta situation?
It was an inexplicably naive thing to do from Paqueta and once he calmed down, he would have regretted doing it.
Getting carried away because of the game’s intensity is one thing, but getting a yellow card for dissent twice in a minute is another.
It is not the first or the last time a decision will go against him and he cannot be reacting like this.
Nuno will need to speak to him in depth as he is the team’s most technical player and one of his first names on the team sheet.
The Portuguese is likely to tell him that these things are unacceptable and he’s not just let his teammates down but also the fans at the London Stadium.
An apology from the Brazil international on social media is the next right step towards addressing the situation.
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