West Ham United striker Michail Antonio has come under criticism from former England defender Micah Richards after his performance against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Replacing Gianluca Scamacca up front at half-time, Antonio led the line for the duration of the second half in the 2-1 defeat, with Antonio having two good chances to help get a winning goal before Michael Olise’s goal in second half stoppage time secured three points for Patrick Vieira’s side.
In the build-up to the late goal, Antonio ran down the right wing to start a counter attack, but despite having five teammates to aim for chipped the ball straight at goalkeeper Vicente Guaita, who started a counter and within 17 seconds, Palace got their winner.
READ MORE: Michail Antonio re-lives Crystal Palace nightmare as West Ham's six-match record ends
Richards said on BBC’s Match of the Day 2 that Antonio had to do better with the cross that could have ultimately stopped the counter attack and goal from happening, with former England captain Alan Shearer joking that Richards was a bad friend, having been laughing and joking with Antonio on the show just a week earlier.
“Antonio, 94 minutes, he’s got to pick his mate out,” said Richards. “He doesn’t and we talk about Crystal Palace on that break.
“There’s the three Alan mentioned there (Olise, Wilfried Zaha and Eberechi Eze), (Jordan) Ayew just behind them, the way they move the ball is so quick. So confident when they are on the attack and they get a little bit of luck.”
Shearer replied: “He’s some mate, isn’t he? Michail Antonio was sat on this show last week, they’ve been Instagramming each other all week and how he digs him out for the goal. Wow.”
Richards then criticised Antonio again after an incident that had happened earlier in the second half. With ten minutes remaining, Antonio ran through on goal and fell to the floor after contact from Marc Guehi, initially winning a penalty before it was correctly ruled out after a VAR check.
The former City defender felt that Antonio’s dive was inexcusable and that the decision was the correct one.
“He does so brilliantly and initially when I first saw it, I thought he’s got his team a penalty,” added Richards. “You’ll see the other angle here and it’s a ridiculously bad dive. I’m sorry Michail, if you were here, I’m sure you would say the same.
“He does all of the hard work, but what is he doing? The size of him, he goes down so easy but the referee, and rightly so, goes to the monitor and confirms.”
Shearer again jokingly replied: “So basically, he’s cost them the winner, he’s dived, you are some mate you are. He’s definitely not coming on this show again with you is he?! That is for sure.”
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