David Moyes with thinly-veiled dig as West Ham prevented from playing Mohammed Kudus in draw to Brighton
David Moyes hit out at the Premier League's fixture schedulers after being prevented from picking Mohammed Kudus for West Ham's goalless draw against Brighton.
Kudus, who has arguably been the Hammers' best player this season, was unavailable for Tuesday night's clash due to his forthcoming participation with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations.
However, Egypt's Mohamed Salah was able to play for Liverpool against Newcastle 24 hours earlier, scoring twice in a 4-2 win before the deadline for players to link up with their countries.
In a thinly-disguised dig at the Premier League's schedulers and the decision to move this match for television a day later, Moyes said: «It feels a bit strange that we're playing on the second of January.
»Could we not have played on the first and allowed our African players to be allowed to play yesterday, because they can't play today?
«I feel that's something which isn't correct. I just think why couldn't we have our African players the same as everybody else?
»Brighton might have had players at the Asian Games — I know (Kaoru) Mitoma's injured I think — but they might have the same feeling.
«It's nothing to do with the performance, Brighton were without lots of good players and we were without lots of good players.
»But I don't see at this point why you would play a game and be disadvantaged by some of your players not being able to play. I'm not saying any more."
The decision to move the match for television looked even more baffling as two weary teams fought out a lifeless goalless draw.
Given that it was West Ham's ninth game in a month, and Brighton's eighth, the managers would probably have shaken hands on a draw before kick-off and gone to watch the darts instead.
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