Exclusive: Lucas Paqueta accused of ‘cheating’ vs Aston Villa – ex-PGMOL chief
West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta has been slammed by Keith Hackett for “play-acting” during his side’s draw with Aston Villa.
The former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official exclusively told Football Insider that referees need to take more action in keeping players apart in such situation, with Matty Cash and Tomas Soucek also clashing.
Paqueta generally impressed with his footballing performance as the Hammers came from a goal down to draw 1-1 at Villa Park on Sunday (26 January).
Hackett though was far from impressed with the behaviour of the West Ham man after he came together with opposition defender Lucas Digne in the lead-up to a set-piece.
Hackett fumes at West Ham man over ‘play-acting’
With the visitors having won a free-kick midway inside the Villa half on the stroke of half-time, there was plenty of action as the two sides lined up yards outside the penalty area to wait for the delivery.
One incident saw Paqueta theatrically go to ground after the West Ham was caught in the chest by the elbow of Digne, with the incident checked by VAR without any punishment.
After that had been rectified, Cash was the next to find himself on the ground following a push by Soucek.
Hackett has now criticised those involved in the incidents, while also calling on referees and others to take more action both in-game and retrospectively to prevent such situations from happening again.
Speaking to Football Insider about first about the incident between Paqueta and Digne, the former referee said:
“There’s nothing in this at all. This is a clear act of simulation and I really do think this for me is cheating. He’s felt a touch and he’s gone straight down like a pack of cards.
“The reality here is that sometimes the referee’s got that much on in these situations that he’s going to miss that, and I just favour where acts of simulation, attempting to deceive the referee, should be offences that can be looked at post-match.
“I would like to see an independent panel reviewing these, and where the player is clearly attempting to deceive the referee, earn a yellow card and probably a fine is issued. Because I think it’s damaging the issue of the game.
“There another as you progress at the back of the line (between Cash and Soucek) where the player goes to ground and you’re thinking ‘there’s a stupidity about it’.
“There’s a definite push. In that situation, again, VAR cannot come in, that’s for sure. But that one at the back, there is a degree of agression in that push.
“If that’s seen by the referee, it’s not, but if it’s seen by the referee, that should be a caution. It can’t be a free-kick because the game’s not in play, the ball’s not in play, so you can’t issue a free-kic, but you can issue a caution.
“So I think they’ve got to work at trying to tidy up how these players behave. You might consider this to be a set-piece free-kick, and where there’s a set-piece free-kick, in this situation they’ve formed a wall, they’re supposed to be a metre between the offending and attacking team. There’s not.
“So the referee needs to apply the law, and then he avoids these acts of simulation, and that’s the very reason why at a set-piece free-kick, this is what it is, even though it’s a long way from goal, there should be that metre between defender and attacker, and it would avoid this, Apply the law please referees.”
West Ham were perhaps fortunate not to go down to ten men in the second half after Edson Alvarez managed to avoid a second booking.
Even so, Emerson was able to head home an equaliser to cancel out Jacob Ramsey’s early opener and earn Graham Potter’s side a point from their trip to Villa Park.
In other news, a West Ham player is keen to leave the club in the January transfer window.
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