Match of the Day pundits take on Nuno Espirito Santo with 'don't want that in Premier League' view

Gary Lineker, Theo Walcott and Micah Richards reviewed Nottingham Forest's defeat to Fulham on Match of the Day.
-Credit: (Image: BBC)


Gary Lineker started the Match of the Day analysis with the acknowledgement that Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo wasn't happy - but him, Theo Walcott and Micah Richards ended up not having all that much sympathy.

Nuno was annoyed by referee Josh Smith's call to award Fulham a penalty for a foul on Murillo by Andreas Pereira, following a VAR check, for what turned out to be the winner at the City Ground. Smith also waved away two Forest claims for a penalty at the other end following challenges on Taiwo Awoniyi and Anthony Elanga.

In turn, each incident was put under the spotlight on BBC One and, in turn, the pundits suggested that Smith and the officials had ultimately come to the right decision.

Walcott first went through the foul on Pereira, saying: “There were quite a few penalty shouts. It’s not clear to see (the alleged foul for Fulham’s penalty). You can see his arms on his back but the contact is actually on his Achilles. You can see (on a magnified replay) quite clearly that the foot is dragged down his Achilles, which causes the contact, and there’s a push there as well so that’s double and, for me, an absolute penalty.”

"I agree," said Richards, who then focused on Elanga's shout for a spot kick and came to the conclusion that it looked worse in slow motion than it was in reality.

Richards said: “This is Bassey on Elanga. You know when it’s slowed down it looks a bit like a penalty but at full speed I don’t think it’s a penalty. On different angles you can see he does catch him a little bit but I don’t think it’s enough and if it goes to VAR they’re not going to overturn that. It’s a ref’s call and I think he got it right on the day.”

The final moment up for review was Awoniyi claiming a trip from Bassey. That was sent to VAR for a check but the decision came back no penalty.

“That’s not a penalty," said Richards as he watched the replay. "I don’t think that’s a penalty.”

It sparked a minor debate in the studio about different benchmarks for a penalty award in the Premier League compared to across Europe.

Lineker said: “You know what? In Europe they give that forever. I agree it shouldn’t be but the state of things nowadays.”

Walcott added: “I’d be disappointed if we saw penalties given for that in the Premier League, that’s for sure.”

Senior officials at Forest are understood to be increasingly frustrated at the standard of officiating.

“We all want peace and for things to continue well, to not have to speak about the referees,” Nuno said. “But it was bad, wasn’t it?

“In Fulham’s box, we had the situations with T and Anthony. They checked and looked, but they don’t have the same opinion we do. We just have to hope that for the next one we are not talking about referees. Let’s try to avoid (talking about officials) and give the referees peace. I think they are trying to improve, but today was not the best day.

“We don’t want to talk about it (referee decisions). Nobody wants to talk about it. When we come to the game, we don’t think about the ref, we just want to compete and play the game and hope the referee gets things right. But today he didn’t do a good job, so let’s hope he improves - like we have to do also. We didn’t play a good game so we have to improve.”

What's your verdict on the penalty decisions? Click HERE to join the debate