David Moyes fumes with officials after West Ham defeat to Liverpool: VAR disrespected us | It was a penalty | Football News

David Moyes was left fuming with the officials after West Ham were denied a late penalty in their 2-1 defeat to Liverpool, saying “VAR disrespected us”.

West Ham were convinced they should have had a late penalty when Thiago’s arm hit the ball as he fell in the area but, despite a VAR check, nothing was given.

There were arguments for and against it being given in a season when the handball interpretation has been in the spotlight but it was a decision which left Moyes infuriated – and ensured Liverpool made it 11 wins from their last 13 meetings with West Ham to maintain their revival.

Law 12 in the FA rulebook explains that the action is not illegal if it is “a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation”.

Moyes said: “You’ll probably hear them come out with some rubbish about, he needed to break his fall. Well if you lunge at the ball it’s your own fault for lunging and being out of control in the tackle. You can break your fall by sliding and having to put your arm down.

“He lunged for the ball so, for me, that completely nullifies anything about breaking the fall. I think it’s a penalty kick. The hardest thing to take is the disrespect from VAR. That VAR wouldn’t have at least said to the referee this might be worth having a look. That’s telling me they don’t see that even close to a decision. I’m surprised.

“A lot of football people have seen a lot worse than that recently.

“Somebody in VAR didn’t have enough football knowledge to understand that this could be close.

“Whoever it was chose not to send the referee to look at it. VAR would have said ‘you should go check this out’

“So VAR showed no respect whatsoever to us for this could be close and worth a call.”

More to follow…