Roberto Martinez has made an eve of match attempt to defuse the anger over James McCarthy’s appalling tackle on Dmitri Payet at Upton park declaring the challenge was honest and not “nasty” as was claimed.
Despite near universal condemnation of the challenge Martinez, made a somewhat poor attempt to defend his player saying: “We’ve moved on from that. It is great to see Dmitri Payet back fit and playing, you don’t want to see players out injured.
“But in the same way, James is an honest footballer, it was nothing malicious and those incidents happen, it happened to us with Tom Cleverley and Eric Dier at Spurs.
“This is the nature of this league, it is a committed league and every ball is a challenge and everyone will fight for the ball but in an honest manner and that is the way I saw it.
“That reaction was maybe down to the frustration of losing an important player, I think, deep down, everyone knew it was an honest challenge to get the ball.
He added: “Payet is one of the creative playmakers and he is an important footballer when they have good, long spells of possession.
“He has outstanding delivery in dead-ball situations but West Ham have pace, they are very dynamic, the new striker has brought a new focal point for them, Antonio is enjoying a good moment of form.
“This team can be resilient when they have to, they can be really tough to beat and really competitive off the ball, but on the ball they can produce dynamic play to hurt you and they have that final pass from Payet. They are a complete team, really.”
You can’t defend the indefensible.I hope the fans give McCarthy stick tonight.I belive the key to the game is keeping bogey man Lukaku quiet. Kouyate did it with Kane on Wednesday and should do it again tonight.COYI
How can Martinez even attempt to defend that challenge. The “we’ve moved on” part I get, fair enough, but an honest challenge??? Even if you were to claim that the tackle was late and that’s why Payet was hit instead of he ball, how do you explain the way that absolute animal scissored his trailing leg? That was about as blatant as it gets for me. An absolutely ridiculous decision to give a yellow instead of red, but I’m sure even the failing referee himself would now (with the help of a replay) agree that it was an awful, intentional attempt to hurt Payet, and it worked. I hope Dimi makes that talentless oaf look like a 5 year old at his first training session this time around. COYI!!
He was let off te hook again last week. Booked for a very similar tackle then blown up for deliberate hand ball in the box but no second yellow. Thought deliberate hand ball was a mandatory booking.
We have to stop the supply from delafoue and the two robots ,
McCarthy will do it again , he’s a hit man , he does nothing but rash tackling , that’s why Martinez plays him , Martinez is a snide , slippery ball shister ,
Hopefully one of our lads will give him a good clump early doors to send him a warning about taking any more liberties
So glad we didn’t get Martinez for manager. Or moyes. Or that other Spanish clown Benitez. Phew. Talk about close escapes and dodging bullets. So we glad we got Super Slav.
Poor is an understatment. Scandalous i think. Lets hope Martinez can be prescribed something for delusion & Taylor has been taking something that causes his back to have grown something resembling a spine. What a pity we are missing Ginger. Now there’s a man with a spine made of Titanium.
Martinez had nothing but praise for referee Paul Tierney. Ha! Not surprised: Let’s just say if Martinez was the mastermind of concerted physical attacks on West Ham players, the ref legitemised it by doing nothing. These repeated attacks were all similar, cynical and DESIGNED to injure: Either McCarthy or Barclay had clearly been COACHED to take off at FULL speed from the half way line and batter West Ham players midway between the half way line and the penalty area. They did it twice on the wing to Moses – very nasty. On another occasion, Barclay pulled up from his run, realising he wasn’t going to catch Payet as Payet got into the penalty area. Culminating eventually with Payet’s injury. IT WAS DESIGNED AND PRE-CONCEIVED. But they didn’t stop! 2nd half, AGAIN midway between the half way line and the penalty area, sideways on and from the corner of his eye, Noble spotted Barclay coming at him at full speed, and quietly pulled the ball and himself back, and Barclay went flying by. It would have been comical, had it not been for the intent. And there were possibly more examples. For Martinez to say the challenge on Payet was “honest” is an outright lie. He is a cheap, hypocritical CHEAT. I hope we batter the ****ing sh1t out of them today, and break McCarthy’s legs. I hate those lying, cheating sc*mbags….! I don’t care about points, I want to see Everton Injuries! F*** ’em. So endeth the sermon!
HSBC
McCarthy is a talentless thug used as a hit man by the slime ball Martinez. He is the same week after week and the refs don’t seem to see it . Hope he gets his come uppence in a very big way .