Tomas Soucek red card: The reaction to Mike Dean's decision to send the West Ham midfielder off

ByEurosport

Updated 06/02/2021 at 22:42 GMT

Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic looked to have made a meal of the contact from West Ham's Tomas Soucek's elbow on the edge of the box. There was contact but violent conduct was a stretch as he appeared to try and get his arm out of the way in the collision with the Fulham striker. David Moyes was left flabbergasted by referee Mike Dean's decision to send the Czech midfielder off.

West Ham had their midfielder Tomas Soucek sent off in stoppage time at relegation-threatened Fulham who largely dominated the match but had to settle for a 0-0 draw in the Premier League on Saturday.

Czech Soucek was dismissed after referee Mike Dean checked the VAR monitor and decided the midfielder had elbowed Aleksandar Mitrovic on the edge of the box before a free kick.

The incident sparked plenty of controversy as it looked incredibly harsh to send the in-form 25-year-old off.

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Soucek posted on Twitter after the game to say Mitrovic agreed with him that his dismissal was unfair.

He said: "I spoke with Aleksandar Mitrović in and after the game and he said to me that our duel was fair, I thank him for that. Unfortunately, the referee had different opinion.

"Anyone who knows me knows I would never mean harm to another player. I am sorry for this moment in the otherwise great season. Really nice fair play moment from Aleksandar."

West Ham boss David Moyes told BBC Sport: "I'm embarrassed for whoever has done VAR tonight.

"It was obvious to everyone it was accidental. I'm really embarrassed they chose to send him off. We want them to get the decisions right. It comes down to a poor decision and we can't do much about it.

It's unfair to the boy. I'm sure they will come up with enough excuses to justify the reason for sending him off.

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West Ham defender Aaron Cresswell told Sky Sports: "He [Aleksandar Mitrovic] made a bit too much of it. It's frustrating to lose Tomas Soucek. He's a massive player for us. A huge loss."

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp said: "What's happening to our game? Fans, players we all love football. But when you see decisions like that... you can blame VAR, Mike Dean, whoever you want. What is he seeing there? The fact he went over there and still decided to give this as a red card... he tried to get his arm out the way.

"Mitrovic tries to grab him and he lifts his arm to get it out the way and completely by accident he hits his elbow and catches him. What is it coming to when you're giving that as a red card."

And there was plenty more negative reaction to the decision on social media...

THE REACTION

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