Gary Lineker has slammed West Ham boss David Moyes’ decision to send Mark Noble to take a penalty in their last gasps in their 2-1 defeat against Manchester United.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s strikes left the game finely poised at half-time before former Iron Jesse Lingard stunned the home faithful with a brilliant curling effort in the 89 th minute.
In the dying minutes of the contest, Moyes’ men were given a chance to equalize following a VAR check after Luke Shaw’s handball from Andriy Yarmolenko’s cross had initially been waved away by referee Martin Atkinson.
Penalty specialist Noble was thrown on for Jarrod Bowen immediately after the spot-kick was awarded. However, the 34-year-old lifelong Hammer – in his final season at the club – saw his effort bound for the bottom left-hand corner pushed away superbly by David de Gea.
Posting on Twitter straight after the full-time whistle, Lineker was left baffled by the decision, comparing it to England boss Gareth Southgate’s decision to send on Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho at the end of extra time in the Euro 2020 final before they missed from. the spot in the defeat by Italy.
Lineker wrote, “That is a decision which I will never understand”.
“Bringing on a player, even as experienced and as good a penalty taker as Noble, purely to take a penalty having not touched the ball is baffling. Same with England at the Euros”.
The tweet found a reply from journalist Barry Glendenning who tweeted that Noble’s career record of 38 penalties scored from 42 going into the match made him well equipped enough to level the scores even with his first touch, to which Lineker replied back, “Every tennis player. hits balls just before playing”.
“Every golfer hits balls just before playing. Every footballer strikes footballs just before playing”.
“A sub coming on 90 minutes doesn’t have that luxury. The small margins make big differences”.
Lineker was not the only one who criticized Moyes’ decision but also Graeme Souness and Roy Keane did the same with the Scot saying, “It’s a poor decision. It’s the 94th minute. You don’t bring someone on who’s stone cold. It’s wrong”.
“He can’t have been warmed up properly. I fancied de Gea to save it. To bring a player who hasn’t had many minutes… there must be players on the pitch who can score”.