West Ham boss David Moyes questions ‘bizarre’ VAR decision to rule out goal

David Moyes believes West Ham have been on the wrong end of too many strange VAR decisions.

After having been denied penalties for balls against Liverpool and Manchester United in recent weeks, the Hammers controversially had a goal disallowed in their 2-0 defeat at Brentford.

As Said Benrahma’s cross bounced off a post, it hit Divin Mubama, who had raised his hand to avoid crashing into the woodwork.

Manuel Lanzini returned the ball to the box to leave Dany Ings with a touch to halve the deficit with 25 minutes to go.

But referee Michael Oliver approached the pitch monitor and ruled that the young striker Mubama had handled the ball.

“Very strange,” Hammers boss Moyes said. “The Premier League came out and called it deliberate handball. I think we need a bit of explanation on that.

“The first thing I would say about it is that it is not conclusive. In any case, I think it hit him in the shoulder, right on the clavicle.

“If it’s a hand that leads to a goal, we all know that rule, but I certainly don’t see it as deliberate. If anything, he could be protecting himself from entering the post. I’m surprised it’s been deleted.

“But, let’s be fair, if this was the first one we were talking about in recent games, I’d say it can happen, but now we’re talking about three of these.

“It is becoming regular. Really is. I don’t want to get in trouble, but we’ve had three real ones that could have upset things, and if you said we had our fair share, I’m saying I don’t think we did.”

In reality, Brentford, who were leading thanks to goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa in the first half, could have been four or five up when Ings’ goal was disallowed.

Moyes’ priorities clearly lie elsewhere despite not being mathematically safe from relegation, with the Hammers boss making nine changes to his squad ahead of Thursday night’s Europa Conference League semi-final second leg. against AZ Alkmaar.

However, if Moyes expected some selection dilemmas for the trip to the Netherlands, he was sorely disappointed.

Mbeumo capitalized on a Nayef Aguerd mistake and Wissa headed in the second after West Ham couldn’t deal with Mathias Jensen’s long ball.

“I didn’t enjoy the performance. I thought we were soft, easy to play against. He was so poor,” Moyes added.

“We did a little bit of work on long-shot defense, but you wouldn’t have thought of that seeing that today. I’m so disappointed that the players haven’t taken care of that.”

The Bees are now assured of a top 10 finish, proving there is no such thing as season two syndrome in this corner of west London.

“They asked me before the season about it,” boss Thomas Frank said, “and without sounding too smart we tried to analyze things, we looked at the players, the other teams, our performances, our culture, and we thought why shouldn’t we “. Will we be able to do well in our second season?

“We are now 100 percent in the top 10, which is a brilliant achievement.”