Garth Crooks selects Ogbonna in Premier League TOTW after West Ham win v Leeds
BBC Sport pundit Garth Crooks has included West Ham defender Angelo Ogbonna in his Premier League team of the week after he scored the winning goal against Leeds.
The Hammers beat Leeds 2-1 on Friday night with Ogbonna and Tomas Soucek scoring the Irons’ goals after a controversial Mateusz Klich penalty gave the hosts the lead at the second time of asking.
Speaking in his team of the week column for BBC Sport, Crooks praised Ogbonna but heavily criticised the officials for their role in Leeds’ opening goal.
He said, “No Premier League team has scored more goals from set-pieces than West Ham, those goals helping lift the Hammers to sixth in the table. David Moyes’ side are proving to be deadly on set-plays but Leeds are awful.
“The Yorkshire club clearly have a problem in this area and Tomas Soucek and Angelo Ogbonna took complete advantage of the situation.
“Ogbonna’s header was impressive, however, I can’t for the life of me understand how VAR could determine that Lukasz Fabianski’s heels were off the line when he saved Mateusz Klich’s penalty when all the replays suggested that they were not.”
The decision to allow Klich to retake his penalty after Lukasz Fabianski saved his first effort was simply ludicrous and it was impossible to tell if the West Ham goalkeeper’s foot was on the line or not.
In that instance, play should have continued because VAR couldn’t be sure if an offence had occurred or not.
Luckily for the Hammers, the decision had little effect on the outcome of the game as David Moyes’ side continued their fine form and brought all three points back to the capital.
Ogbonna found the net for the second time in three games against Leeds after he scored his side’s first in the recent 2-1 win over Aston Villa.
The defender has played almost every minute of Premier League action for Moyes’ side this season and Irons fans will be hoping that his fine attacking and defensive form continues as the Hammers continue to look up the table.
In other West Ham news, Tony Cascarino believes that Declan Rice looks like a Manchester United signing.