West Ham manager David Moyes has defended Manuel Lanzini after Mark Hughes accused the playmaker of diving to win a penalty during the Hammers 3-0 win against the Potters on Saturday.
19 minutes into the game, Lanzini went down in the box. Though Erik Pieters was foolish to dive in, contact was only initiated after Lanzini had gone down in the box.
As of this season, successful deception of a referee can entail a retrospective ban, however referee Geoff Scott was confident that Lanzini had been fouled.
Mark Noble made no mistake in converting from the spot to give the Hammers the lead. Marko Arnautovic and Diafra Sakho scored further goals during the second half to secure a 3-0 win for Moyes side.
Hughes had criticized Lanzini by saying, “We huffed and puffed, up to the point of the second goal we were in it. We were damaged by a poor decision it allowed them to get people behind the ball. They’re a threat on the attack and in the end that’s what’s taken the game from us.
“When we try and be expansive we can’t go one v one, we get picked off. We’ve got to be better in that regard.
“It’s the way our luck is going at the moment. You convince yourself that luck will change and we’ve got to keep that mindset. Things are conspiring against us and we need help from referees to get things right. That’s the hope moving forward, that we get cut some slack.
“I’ve seen it again. The guy’s dived. He’s drawn the challenge. He’s a clever player. It was clearly a dive and the ref’s seen something that no-one else saw. All in all it was a poor sequence of events for him and for us.
However, Moyes replied to Hughes’ comments saying, “It sounds like sour grapes when you talk about people getting punished retrospectively. It doesn’t help us now.”
