West Ham: Graeme Souness reacts to Michail Antonio controversy in v Nottingham Forest as footage emerges
Graeme Souness suggests it was the correct decision for West Ham to have a first-half goal ruled out against Nottingham Forest due to a foul by Michail Antonio in the build-up.
Said Benrahma put the Irons ahead in the first half after a swift counter-attack but referee Robert Jones ruled it out after checking the pitchside monitor after Antonio collided with Forest defender Orel Mangala.
Forest took the lead not long after through Taiwo Awoniyi, rubbing salt into David Moyes’ wounds.
Souness has suggested it was the correct call to rule out the goal as he says Mangala was close to Declan Rice, who played in the pass to Benrahma just after the Forest man was wiped out by Antonio.
Speaking on Sky Sports Main Event on Sunday (14 August, 02:54pm), Souness said: “For me, it is a collision.
“I think [Mangala] is the nearest person to Declan Rice. He shuffles left and right, he’s on his way [to close down Rice].
“He’s the nearest player to him and Antonio’s arms are up there so he’s seen the collision is happening.
“Could he have avoided him? Maybe slightly.
“If he did try to avoid him, there was going to be some contact.
“But I think the referee’s going on the fact that he’s the nearest player to the ball and therefore he’s got to give the foul.”
Hard done by
We’ve got unlucky there.
Mangala was on his toes, choosing which way to go to close down Rice.
Antonio came charging in, hoping to get in behind the defence with his pace and power.
However, he couldn’t work out what Mangala was doing because he was positionally all over the place and that led to the two players coming together.
Mangala went down to the floor and while Antonio’s arms were raised, he didn’t do that to push the Forest player over, he did it to avoid hurting himself or hitting his head.
It’s a tough one to take but we can see why it was ruled out, in all fairness.
Antonio didn’t mean to wipe Mangala out but that’s beside the point, he committed an off-the-ball foul and that leads to a free-kick, unfortunately ruling out a very good goal by the Hammers.
We were desperately unlucky at times at the City Ground.