Lucas Paquetá has apologised to his teammates following his double-yellow dismissal against Liverpool. The Brazilian midfielder will miss Thursday’s fixture against Manchester United as a result of his petulance towards referee Darren England.
Later that evening, the 28-year-old blamed his behaviour on the prolonged FA investigation — ironically into alleged betting breaches involving his yellow cards.
After the game, manager Nuno Espírito Santo refused to be drawn on the incident, telling journalists he needed to speak to the player first. Well, now he has.
“I’ve spoken to Lucas, and not only me — he has spoken to all of his teammates. First of all, he apologised. Everybody deserves a chance, and this is the case. We have to move forward. Lucas isn’t available for the Manchester United game, but he will be involved in the next one.”
Bowen Under Scrutiny as Leadership Questioned
Apologising to his teammates would have been an interesting scene, particularly given the criticism directed at captain Jarrod Bowen after the incident. Bowen showed a lack of leadership in allowing a situation to unfold that most people watching could see coming a mile off. One would imagine he didn’t appreciate being dragged under the microscope for failing to step in as Paquetá’s temper spiralled.
The timing made it all the worse. On the day the club learned of Billy Bonds’ passing, it was unedifying to watch a West Ham player throw a tantrum on the pitch and get himself sent off, while supporters were trying to pay their respects to Bonzo.
Nevertheless, Espírito Santo appears to have drawn a line under the episode, seemingly satisfied with the mitigation that Paquetá’s meltdown was linked to sustained pressure from the FA investigation. But like Bowen, Nuno has now been placed in an awkward position. His unwavering support for Paquetá means the midfielder must repay the faith shown in him — by the manager, the club, the fans, and, most importantly, his teammates.
I think the criticism of Bowens captaincy is well over the top. It’s come from a certain portion of West Ham social media who probably all message each other on the same what’s app group and subsequently parrot each others opinions from the same echo chamber. As Captain it was Bowens job to talk to the referee which he was trying to do. Where were Paquetas other team mates? Why was it just down to Bowen to drag Paqueta away from the ref? In truth the referee should have dished the first yellow card then run away. Thats what they’re supposed to do. Not follow the aggrieved player.
Why are people blaming Bowen, nobody was going to stop Paqueta, even Liverpool players were trying to stop him, the Ref gave him loads of chances.
Totally unfair to attribute any blame on Bowen.
It’s obvious, notwithstanding the events of Sunday, that the mantle of captaincy doesn’t sit easily with Bowen. Whether this has contributed towards his perceived dip in performance is speculative.
To me, the obvious solution would be a transfer of Bowen’s title to that of Club Captain, allowing an alternative to be appointed Team Captain. All in the nomenclature, but it doesn’t ‘strip’ him of the captaincy role, which would be plain wrong, disrespectful and sending the wrong message to everyone. It would however absolve him of the stresses of scenarios such as the Paqueta case.
One problem with this is that we don’t actually have one single regular first team player worthy of stepping up to fill the potential void.
This fact is probably symptomatic of so much more than this particular conundrum.
Wow! These guys really do get it easy don’t they?
I feel that Paqueta was out of order on the day of Bonzo’s passing and deserves to be condemned for that – however I feel that the criticism for Bowen is uncalled for – I feel that he is doing his best as captain and deserves our support – starting on Thursday at Old Trafford
COYI
Totally agree. Bowens not a one man band. Why was Paqueta being held back by Liverpool players and not his own team mates while Bowen was trying to get an explanation from the referee?