‘Don’t talk to me about…’ – Big Sam rubbishes West Brom claim from Chris Sutton
Sam Allardyce was in an irate mood after West Brom lost to Manchester City, and he refused to accept one particular criticism aimed at his team.
The Albion boss arrived late at his post-match press conference due to an extra-long team talk after the match, but he made his feelings clear once he did appear.
West Brom were on the receiving end of some poor officiating for City’s second goal, but some, including Chris Sutton, have suggested that Albion ought to have played to the whistle.
As reported by Sky Sports, Big Sam was very forthright in dismissing that claim, saying, “Everybody stops when they see an offside flag so all that rubbish about playing to the whistle is rubbish.
“Nobody who plays football would carry on to think it is not offside. That is why the flag goes up that is what the flag says.
“Anybody else who says anything else after that is talking absolute nonsense, so don’t talk to me about ‘they must play to the whistle’.”
Big Sam right to feel aggrieved
Officials have been told that they must delay raising their flag if they think a player is in an offside position.
Sian Massey failed to follow that rule, and it ended up costing West Brom a second goal on Tuesday.
Sutton himself admitted that fault and Big Sam is right to reject the claim that his players should have acted differently.
Bernardo Silva appeared to be offside when he received the ball yet the Albion defence continued as normal – until the flag was raised.
It was raised for so long that you can’t blame some of the Albion players for stopping.
Romaine Sawyers, Jake Livermore and much of the back four switched off for vital seconds, allowing Joao Cancelo to score.
We don’t want to hammer Massey here, who is a good official.
But that was a key mistake at a really crucial time. The goal was correctly awarded by the current laws of the game but this incident shows that changes have to be made.
In other West Brom news, ‘Retire’, ‘Embarrassing to watch’ – Many West Brom fans tear into ‘useless’ player v Man City.