Moyes slams Salah over penalty incident in West Ham defeat v Liverpool
West Ham boss David Moyes has criticised Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah after the Egyptian ‘threw himself to the ground’ in order to win a penalty against his side.
The Hammers lost 2-1 against the Reds after taking an early lead at Anfield. Pablo Fornals opened the scoring before Salah’s penalty and a Diogo Jota strike saw the points go to last year’s Premier League champions.
Speaking after the game, the Liverpool Echo report Moyes saying that Arthur Masuaku also wasn’t expecting the referee to point the spot as the West Ham defender was penalised for a challenge on the Liverpool star.
He said, “I don’t think it’s a penalty kick. I think he throws himself to the ground.
“Arthur (Masuaku) stops expecting the referee to do something because of the way he (Salah) threw himself to the ground and it went the other way.
“That shouldn’t take away a lot of the positives from the game. We did a lot of good things tonight and we are really disappointed we didn’t take anything from the game.”
We think it’s fair to say that Liverpool’s penalty was a touch on the soft side. There is contact between Masuaku and Salah but was it really enough to make the Liverpool forward fall to the ground clutching his ankle?
It would be interesting to see if the scenario was reversed and it was Haller or Fornals who was felled in the Liverpool box, we wonder if such a soft decision would’ve been given against Liverpool at Anfield.
It is so disappointing that the penalty let Liverpool back into the game. Until the spot-kick the Hammers were arguably the better side and looked like they may take more points off a top six club following draws against Man City and Tottenham. But similarly to last season West Ham folded and walked away with nothing.
In other West Ham news, according to a report Michail Antonio wants to spend the rest of his career at the London Stadium.