Moyes hits out at VAR and rails at referee block
DAVID MOYES slammed referee Peter Bankes for a “ridiculous” block on Jarrod Bowen and claimed the VAR official had to “go to Specsavers” after West Ham drew at Southampton.
The furious Hammers boss said the first-half goal from Romain Perraud, below, should have been disallowed because the referee stopped Bowen playing the ball.
And the Scot then claimed the Frenchman was guilty of a Judo move on Tomas Soucek that should have led to a penalty as he questioned the eye sight of VAR official Simon Hooper.
Declan Rice scored a second-half equaliser, but Moyes seethed: “How have we not got three points?
“The real reason is the referee – the referee gets in the way of the ability for us to defend.The ball comes out and Jarrod Bowen goes to get the ball and the referee blocks Jarrod Bowen from getting to it and the boy scores from it. Ridiculous, it really is.
“The referee got in his way. Maybe you just have to say that the referee was in a really bad position.
“It might be a bounced ball between the two teams but you can’t get in the way of somebody getting it and it ends up a goal.
“I asked him about it, but I spoke to him more about the penalty kick. The penalty kick on Tomas Soucek is a judo move by the player who is marking him.
“There must be new rules in football, so you should check out the new rules, which are that you can grab them right around the waist and you can hold them and then you can put them in a judo move, where you slam them down.
“It’s not the referee, it is VAR. Whoever was onVAR today needs to go to Specsavers”
Ralph Hasenhuttl admitted “one point is not enough” after his Saints remained in the bottom three.
They have yet to keep a clean sheet in 16 league games since April while scoring only nine goals in 10 this season. “We tried everything,” said boss Hasenhuttl. “When you lead and give it away, it’s not good, but we had problems in the second half with closing them down.”
SOUTHAMPTON (4-4-2): Bazunu 7; Walker-Peters 6, Bella-Kotchap 5 (Caleta-Car 42, 6), Salisu 5, Perraud 7; Elyounoussi 8, Ward-Prowse 7, Maitland-Niles 5 (Diallo 74), Aribo 6 (Edozie 74); A Armstrong 7 (S Armstrong 74), Adams 7 (Mara 74). Goal: Perraud 20. WEST HAM (4-2-3-1): Fabianski 7; Coufal 6, Johnson 5, Kehrer 6, Cresswell 5; Soucek 6, Rice 7; Bowen 6, Paqueta 6 (Lanzini 87), Emerson 5 (Benrahma 59, 6); Scamacca 7 (Antonio 87). Goal: Rice 64.