After West Ham United’s defeat against Bayer Leverkusen last night, Joe Cole was unhappy with one of the players.
The match ended in defeat for the Hammers against the in-form Leverkusen, managed by former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso.
David Moyes and his defensive tactics proved to be costly for the Premier League club, with the German club taking full advantage of West Ham’s pragmatism.
Michail Antonio was the only silver lining in an otherwise poor performance from the Hammers.
Joe Cole was on punditry duty on TNT Sports last night and he was critical of one West Ham player.
He gave Antonio high marks for his performance, but his remarks on one of the Jamaican international’s teammates weren’t quite as kind.
The former player said: “Yes, they’re lucky not to be down to 10. He was getting frustrated, he dives in and that was a wild swipe. I can’t believe it.”
The West Ham star showed naivety
It is hard to disagree with Cole as Paqueta’s booking meant he couldn’t play his natural game for the rest of the match.
Additionally, he kept onto the ball for much too long when he got it within the final third, without posing any threat to the Bundesliga team.
Paqueta let West Ham down
The Brazilian was in danger of missing the second leg with a suspension and instead of being clever and careful, he was reckless.
Losing to Bayer Leverkusen was not a shocking result as they are the team in form in Europe and remain unbeaten under the leadership of Alonso.
However, it would not be unfair to say that Paqueta let the Hammers down in Germany and failed to make his presence felt in a crucial game for the club.
And Moyes would be without his main player in the second leg.