West Ham United had a goal disallowed on Sunday after Tomas Soucek was adjudged to have handled the ball before Jarrod Bowen slotted home.
Michael Owen has been chatting to Howard Webb about the goal being disallowed after the infringement from Tomas Soucek, and he seems to have noticed another reason why the West Ham goal shouldn’t have stood.
Firstly, I have to say that the correct decision was made in the end – but the VAR officials just took far too long to reach an outcome – something that award-winning journalist Henry Winter has criticised them for.
Now, the new rules this year state that if a player handles the ball before he scores a goal, it will automatically be ruled out.
However, if another player handles the ball before his teammate scores, the goal will only be disallowed if the handball was intentional.
That’s why Bowen’s goal was ruled out on Sunday against Villa, because Soucek was judged to have handled the ball on purpose, correctly so in my opinion.
Hammers boss David Moyes would have been fuming with the fact that it took 5 minutes and 37 seconds for a decision to be made. If it’s not clear and obvious then there’s no decision to make surely!
The Premier League are said to be seeking answers from PGMOL, demanding why it took them such a long time to reach a conclusion.
However, Owen clearly didn’t have a problem with the length of time it took to make the decision, and highlighted something else that should have been checked…
Michael Owen examines Tomas Soucek being the reason for disallowed goal
The former Premier League striker now spends his time doing punditry work for various publications and TV companies.
And Owen suggested that the VAR officials should have been looking at another problem in the build up to the goal that was eventually ruled out, when speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up on Sky Sports (Tuesday March 19th, 7:08pm):
“I just wonder, I’m having a look at this again, I think Soucek fouled his man before the handball. If you look at him here, Soucek, it’s his right arm, he grabs the shirt of Konsa. It’s the grab of the shirt first, and then watch the left arm, he then grabs him with his left arm. So I think actually that could have been given as a foul, and I’m sure they would have got to that eventually.”
I’m sorry Michael but that really is nit-picking. It’s a contact sport, and players tug each others shirts on a regular basis during games.
The West Ham goal should have been disallowed because Tomas Soucek handled the ball, but had he not done that and they ruled it out for his tussle with Ezri Konsa, it would have beyond a joke.
What a strange call it was from Michael Owen – a former striker, just looking for more reasons to rule out goals!
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