Jordan Pickford
Sam Allardyce has bemoaned VAR for not handing his side a penalty as Everton beat West Brom 1-0 on Thursday evening. The Baggies manager also believes his side didn’t deserve to lose the match, claiming that the visitors created ‘little or no chances’ as they secured all three points.
Sam Allardyce said “I should be better than I am, I should be smiling, but sadly I’m very disappointed for my players tonight. Most of it is our own fault, and obviously some of it is the officials not giving us a penalty particularly in the first few minutes with the tackle from Mason Holgate on Mbaye. I’ve seen, while I’ve been watching football when I haven’t been managing for the last two years or so and since VAR has come in, 50 or 60 penalties given for a lot less than that. This was contact on his leg, no contact on the ball. He brings the player down and, lo-and-behold, it doesn’t even go to VAR in terms of VAR saying come and have a look and make your own mind up. Next week I’ll see two penalties given for similar incidents, so then it boils down to the lack of consistency again. VAR is not making life consistent, it’s just bringing as much inconsistency as it did before it arrived.”
West Brom had started the game on the front foot, with the incident inside the box coming shortly after a great save from Jordan Pickford to keep the scores level. Allardyce believes his side sufficiently limited Everton’s opportunities throughout the game, claiming Richarlison’s goal came from a half chance, before the hosts had a late strike ruled out for offside.
Sam Allardyce said “We’d just seen a great save from Pickford, and on the back of that we pick the ball up again and then we don’t get the penalty. If we miss that penalty that’s our fault, if we score that penalty we’re 1-0 up and I believe on the way we played tonight we would not have lost this game – and had a very good chance of winning it. It’s a massive setback for us, in terms of the result a massive disappointment for the players. We know we shouldn’t have lost this game, but we did. A lot of it we have to take the blame ourselves for not finishing opportunities or not making more opportunities. But, on the other side, Everton are riding high apparently at the top of the league – but created little or no chances tonight. The goal was only half a chance, it just was Richarlison made sure it was his goal, was his header and not our lads putting their body on the line to stop it going in. Even then we scored a great goal and it was half a toenail offside sadly. If you’re on the right side of that it brings you points, if you’re on the wrong side of that you lose points.”
