Moyes’ Bowen comment was bang out of order

By Dave Langton

By Dave Langton

David Moyes has a habit of coming out with some very odd post-match comments and he did it again after the defeat to Arsenal.

Jarrod Bowen had gone through on goal during the game, and Aaron Ramsdale, Arsenal’s goalkeeper, rushed out to stop him.

He decided to do so with a slide tackle, and his boot was raised, so Bowen took evasive action and hit the deck. Mike Dean – who is retiring at the end of the season, thankfully – viewed it as a dive and booked him.

Moyes said afterwards that Bowen should have left a foot in, meaning that he essentially asked the winger to ensure that contact was made.

Pictures since show that Ramsdale’s boot was so high that doing could have meant he was dealing with a broken ankle, rather than a caution for simulation.

It was a not unusually awful  decision from Dean, but there was no contact, so the correct decision was probably to play on and let the game flow.

But instead, he drew attention to the fact Bowen hit the deck, and Moyes has latched onto it.

Bowen was actually one of our best players against Arsenal and to single him out for criticism felt incredibly harsh.

Not just that, Moyes is actually wrong; there’s not much debate to be had here, he was advocating Bowen ‘leaving a foot in’ and getting clattered.

That’s just what we would have needed ahead of the Europa League semi-final second leg against Eintracht Frankfurt this week.