David Moyes frustrated with ‘poor defending’ and believes West Ham can have no complaints with penalty call

AFP via Getty Images
Jack Rosser @JackRosser_15 December 2021

David Moyes has criticised the performance of his West Ham players and bemoaned their poor defending after defeat at Arsenal saw them drop out of the top four.

Vladimir Coufal was shown a second half red card after two bookings but the Hammers never really got close to Arsenal and were poor in stopping both goals.

Midfielders Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek were slow to close down Alexandre Lacazette, allowing him to set up Gabriel Martinelli for the opener, while Said Benrahma was sloppy in losing possession in the build up to Emile Smith Rowe’s strike.

“I didn’t think an awful lot of our performance generally,” said Moyes.

“I thought Arsenal played well and had good intensity. We weren’t able to deal with it at the start or in the second half. We showed resilience to stay in the game and hang in there.

“[There were] a couple of really poor bits of play which led to the goals for us. Poor defending on both from us and we gave away the ball on the second when we were in the ascendancy.”

Moyes refused to criticise referee Anthony Taylor for his decision to send Coufal off in the second half, saying his full-back should have made a better challenge.

The Czech defender was booked for an elbow on Kieran Tierney in the first half before being shown a controversial second yellow after the break.

Coufal conceded a penalty for a sliding challenge on Lacazette though replays showed that the full-back made contact with the ball before the Arsenal striker. Despite the controversial nature of the decision, VAR Peter Bankes decided against sending the referee, Taylor, to review his decision at the monitor.

“Over the weekend we had some really soft penalty kicks and I think that [referee] Anthony Taylor might have got this one right,” said Moyes.

“I think he did get the ball but Vladimir Coufal should have got better contact on the ball and maybe toe-poked it away or he needs to get fuller contact on it. I still feel the referee could have not given it because of the contact but the follow-through is probably more the reason for it.

“He should have toe-poked it away. I don’t think it was that difficult a tackle to make.”

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