Refs are getting ‘too scared’ to officiate properly
Soucek is given the elbow to stun boss
Fulham 0 West Ham 0
SOAKED and frowning, it was a little like the David Moyes we used to know. Sluggish and inconsequential, it was a bit like the old West Ham, too. But it is a measure of their immense progress that poor draws can be seen as blips these days rather than incitements to a coup.
This was not their best. Neither was it their second best, nor third. It wasn’t much of anything, actually.
They didn’t create, they didn’t apply pressure, they didn’t defend particularly well and they didn’t finish with 11 men, either. That latter fact related to another nonsense of t he VAR system and a stoppage-time decision to send off Tomas Soucek for violent conduct that manager Moyes described as ‘embarrassing’, but West Ham were in trouble long before then.
That they left with a point came down to a single relevant detail — they came up against Fulham and, really, that is all one needs to know. ow.
On some level, that hat might seem grossly y unfair, because Scott Parker’s side were very good in that way where they are often very good.
Suffice to say, they were good in all respects beyond the trifling matter of putting balls in nets.
They had no fewer r than 20 shots here and how many were on target? Two.
The worry is that such a recurring failure to finish is going to be terminal. They have 17 goals across 22 league games, and a 12match run without a win — that eight-point gap to safety already looks awfully big.
West Ham have a brighter outlook, even if this was a poor display, and one so forgettable that Moyes’s press conference was dominated by the sending off. Rightly so, actually, because it was a shambles. The incident centred on Soucek’ s elbow hitting h Aleksandar Mitrovic Min the face in the wait for a 94thminute minu free-kick. Soucek Souce appeared to be in the act of turning rather than in the midst of any kind of assault, but VAR Lee Mason instructed Mike Dean — the same pair that enraged Southampton at Manchester United in midweek — to go to the pitchside monitor and a red followed. Moyes was furious. ‘I think it was an embarrassing decision,’ said Moyes, who claimed Mitrovic told Dean it was an accident. ‘ I’m more embarrassed that it would happen and VAR would go and ask him to look at it because I t hought i t was j ust a si mple accident which should have just said get on with the game and nothing more.
‘I think they’re both very experienced referees and I’d be amazed if that was the way they wanted to referee the games. Do we now look at every accidental incident and say that could be considered for a red card?
‘Referees look a bit frightened not to do what they think is correct at the moment. When are referees going to stand up and say this is not the correct way to referee games?’ Parker was almost as baffled. ‘It looked a little bit harsh but the way the game is going it’s getting a little bit sterile. Sooner or later there will be no need for shinpads.’ For Parker, this match was a repetition of their season pattern, with his side playing nice football and working up to a pair of buzzing, fluid attackers in Ivan Cavaleiro and Ademola Look man, who regularly sought and found possession in tight spaces. Nice on the eye, truly, but so often the moves came to nothing.
In some kind of order, Cavaleiro and Lookman had shots blocked, Angelo Ogbonna almost deflected a Lookman cross into his own net, and Lookman was off target with two more chances — all that in a fraction over half an hour.
In the second half, Ruben LoftusCheek had a one-on-one but when Lukasz Fabianski went to ground the chip hit the side-netting. Vladimir Coufal responded by heading against Fulham’s bar and that was as good as West Ham got. Patches of t heir football was decent, but they were lacking most of their recent spark. For one, Jesse Lingard was finding it far harder to get involved than he did against Aston Villa, and of equal significance Said Benrahma was looking fatigued. The package was just a few notches below where it had been in acquiring five wins in the previous six league games.
‘It wasn’t a good performance,’ said Moyes. The only injustice from the West Ham perspective was the red card, which they will surely appeal. It is one battle they can probably expect to win.
FULHAM (3-4-2-1): Areola 6; Tete 6.5, Andersen 6.5, Tosin 7; DecordovaReid 6.5 (Zambo 83min), Reed 7, Lemina 7 (Mitrovic 79), Robinson 6.5 (Maja 79); Loftus-Cheek 6.5, Lookman 7; Cavaleiro 6. Booked: Andersen. Subs (not used): Hector, Rodak, Ream, Bryan, Onomah, Aina.
WEST HAM (4-2-3-1): Fabianski 6.5; Coufal 6.5, Dawson 7, Ogbonna 6.5, Cresswell 7; Soucek 6, Rice 7; Bowen 6 (Noble 56, 6), Lingard 6, Benrahma 6 (Yarmolenko 56, 6); Antonio 6 (Fredericks 74, 6). Booked: Ogbonna, Fabianski, Yarmolenko. Sent off: Soucek (90min). Subs (not used): Balbuena, Lanzini, Fornals, Diop, Martin, Johnson. Referee: M Dean (Wirral) 5.5.