West Ham United were beaten by Newcastle United in the Premier League yesterday.
Hammers boss David Moyes addressed the media during his post-match press conference, and was highly critical of Michail Antonio’s display against Newcastle yesterday, as quoted by popular football news website Football.London.
The 27-year-old was ineffective throughout the game against Rafa Benitez’s side, before being taken off and replaced by Andy Carroll in the 59th minute.
Antonio joined West Ham from Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2015, for a fee believed to be worth in the region of £7 million, and he has gone on to establish himself as one of his team’s most important players.
He struggled badly against the Magpies yesterday, however, failing to offer his teammates anything in the form of an attacking outlet.
Whether Moyes should have been so openly critical of him, however, is debatable.
The 54-year-old Scot addressed the media during his post-match press conference, and did not hold back when asked about the 27-year-old’s lacklustre performance, as quoted by Football.London:
“Just never seemed to get a run in and he’s an important player for us. I agree, we said to him at half time ‘Look if you’re not gonna show us then we’re going to have to do something about it,’ and I hoped he would find a way of getting a run in, but he never at any time gave us anything which we could see would be helping us.”
Next up for the Hammers is a trip to the south coast to take on Bournemouth on Boxing Day, and a win will be of vital importance, with the Cherries sitting just below them in the Premier League table.
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