West Ham manager David Moyes says the Hammers penalty was soft but says there was no intent by Lanzini to dive and it was more likely fatigue after running 70 yards.
Moyes told reporters: “I would call it soft. Manu has ran 70 yards and probably ran his race at the end of it, I think the defender going to ground means the referee has a choice to make, I don’t think there’s any intent regarding a dive. I think he’s riding the tackle more than anything.
“If you take the whole action into consideration, I definitely don’t see it being a dive. I see it being tiredness at the end of it but I don’t see a dive.”
Lanzini could face a two-match ban if he is retrospectively found guilty of simulation by a three-man panel.
Stoke manager Mark Hughes told reporters “Whether or not he is (retrospectively punished) or not, it doesn’t help us,”
“He’s clearly dived. He’s a clever player, he’ll draw a foul or some kind of challenge but he wasn’t clipped. Referees need to get match-defining decisions correct and he certainly didn’t get that one correct.”
From what you can see on the TV the ref gave the penalty for the way the Stoke defender lunged at Lanzini he was not playing the ball but the man, also it looks like Lanzini was trying to hurdle the challenge he was not diving
Yeh ok , Claret ,,, but he didn’t exactly try to keep on his feet did he ? . We’ve seen cards dished out for simulation and even sendings off . If it wasn’t for the 70yard run and getting squeezed out he could have earned a yellow . He went down easily and got away with it , much to our benefit thankfully . It set us up and put Stoke on the back foot . But hey , you win some and you lose some . About time we were awarded something . Was that our second or third penalty so far this season ?.. .
I gotta say, I was convinced he dove for most of the match and I was displeased because I don’t want my team pulling that nonsense. However, here in the States, NBC Sports replayed the tackle in slow motion from several angles after the game and I finally saw it. Lanzini has started to fall forward and back foot was clipped slightly by the trailing foot of the defender. At that speed and with him tiring, any one who has played the game knows, it doesn’t take much to upset your equilibrium. I don’t know what the ref saw and he only had a split second to look. For me, maybe it was a trick of the angle and my desire to see this in the best light but I’m now convinced Manu was caught enough to make a difference. I sincerely hope the panel looking at this sees the angle I saw and realize this isn’t as cut and dry as Mark Hughes and every Stoke web site would have us believe.