“I completely understand that not everyone was happy about it, we are all disappointed with what happened and we can’t understand it,” Moyes said. BBC† “Only I had to put together the best team that we could beat Watford with. After all, that’s what I’m the manager of West Ham for and Kurt was part of that team.”
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Moyes continues: „It was difficult, because in addition to being a manager, I am also a person with feelings about these kinds of things, especially as an animal lover. But in the end I have to get the results here and in that assignment Kurt is an important player for us.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has joined Sky Sports critical of that decision. “I am very disappointed in Moyes. I know how important winning is for the club, but leadership should have been shown here. Zouma should not have played. I’m concerned that young people see this and think you can easily get away with this kind of behavior.”
From a purely sporting point of view, Moyes was in any case right. With Zouma, Watford was defeated 1-0. West Ham United therefore takes over fourth place from Manchester United, which dropped points against the Burnley of the outstanding Wout Weghorst. United still have one game to catch up on.