David Moyes makes ‘disrespect’ and Anfield claims after Liverpool’s victory over West Ham

David Moyes felt that West Ham were disrespected by VAR in their loss to Liverpool.

The Reds earned a 2-1 win at the London Stadium to make it three successive victories - and moved up to sixth in the Premier League table.

Lucas Paqueta opened the scoring for the Hammers in the 12th minute but Liverpool levelled six minutes later through Cody Gakpo’s sixth goal since arriving from PSV Eindhoven in January.

Then in the 67th minute, Joel Matip powered home a header from an Andy Robertson corner to give the Reds the lead.

However, West Ham were adamant they should have been awarded a penalty in the closing stages when the ball hit the arm of Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara. A spot-kick was not given, with the reason being because Thiago’s arm was breaking his fall.

That decision left Moyes incensed, however, and was baffled why VAR referee Neil Swarbrick did not at least tell on-field referee Chris Kavanagh to review the incident on the monitor.

Hammers boss Moyes said: “I only had one chance. I didn’t have a chance before I spoke to the ref, but I’ve had a chance to see it since. The difference for me, and you’ll probably hear them coming out with some rubbish like he needed to break his fall but if you lunge at the ball it’s your own fault for lunging and being out of control in the tackle. Now, you can break your fall by sliding down and having to put your arm down but when you lunge for the ball. For me, that completely nullifies anything they’re talking about breaking your fall.

“I think it’s a penalty kick. I don’t know what else I’ve got to say. I think the hardest thing to take is the disrespect from VAR, that VAR wouldn’t have at least said to the referee that this might be worth having a look. That’s telling me that they don’t see that as even close to a decision. So I’m surprised, because a lot of football people, a lot of football are in here and people who write, I bet you’ve seen a lot worse than that recently.

“Somebody in VAR didn’t have enough football knowledge to understand that this could be close. Disrespect is not a football club, this is a football club and supporters who are at the game and will tell you all of the football people involved and that whoever it was chose not to send the referee. The VAR would have said, hey, you should go and check this out. VAR for me showed no respect whatsoever to us, thinking that this could be close or worth a call.”