WHY WE MUST CUT MOYES A BIT OF SLACK
A LOT of people can get very upset by Gary Lineker’s opinions. They don’t like him talking about Brexit, about immigration, about the placement of refugees. This is strange because, as a citizen of the United Kingdom, he is entitled to his view on all of these subjects which affect him, his children and the society in which we live. It is more than likely, however, that Lineker will never have to make the judgement call that fell to David Moyes in the last minute of West Ham’s match with Manchester United on Sunday. Lineker has never been a manager and is never going to be a manager. So he doesn’t know what it is like to get a penalty with the final kick of the game, to look along the bench and see the club penalty-taker sitting there and a comparative novice standing over the ball.
And neither do those of us in the press box. So maybe it is time to cut Moyes a bit of slack and not judge too harshly the decision he made to bring on Mark Noble, and stand down Declan Rice. Noble had scored his previous 10 penalties for West Ham. He last missed on December 14, 2016, against Burnley. Rice has taken two penalties in his West Ham career, and missed one — the last, against West Bromwich Albion in May. In a world in which we are increasingly in thrall to the power of statistical analysis it seems bizarre that Moyes should be decried for valuing the facts above gut instincts about players entering cold. So he went with his proven penalty-taker, the man who would have simply been handed the ball by Rice had he already been on the field.
And then Noble (right) missed, for the first time in almost five years. Those, like Lineker, who described Moyes’ decision as ‘baffling’ are unfair. Ultimately, it depends on whether the ball goes in the net. If David de Gea goes the wrong way — as he has done frequently, given he last saved a Premier League penalty on October 5, 2014 — Moyes has made the smart move.
And what of those who argued that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should have removed De Gea before he failed to stop 11 Villarreal penalties straight, as Manchester United lost the 2021 Europa League final? Is Solskjaer now a genius for keeping De Gea on against West Ham, rather than turning to Tom Heaton on the bench? After all, it was the last kick of the match. Going down to 10 men would not have troubled Manchester United. So Solskjaer is now right for doing exactly the same thing as he did against Villarreal, when he was wrong. And Moyes is wrong for doing exactly what Sir Alex Ferguson did in the 2008 Champions League final, when Anderson was brought on in the fifth additional minute of extra time, took a penalty cold, scored and his manager was hailed as a motivational genius.
Eric Dier comes from nowhere to take England’s anchor penalty against Colombia, scores, and Gareth Southgate is bold and insightful. Bukayo Saka misses and he is a fool for heaping pressure on one so inexperienced. It’s post-cognition. After it’s happened, everyone sees it coming.