David Moyes believes referees look "frightened" to not make certain decisions following a VAR controversy when Tomas Soucek was shown a late red card after a review during West Ham's goalless draw at Fulham.
The Hammers were reduced to 10 men when the towering midfielder was dismissed in added time – following an extensive VAR review – for putting his elbow in Aleksandar Mitrovic's face.
Referee Mike Dean consulted the pitchside monitor, after being invited to do so by VAR official Lee Mason, having initially waved play on.
"I don't think any of us have really enjoyed parts of the game," the Hammers boss said after the match when asked if it was moving in a dangerous direction.
"I think there's lots of good things in football at the moment, we've got some really exciting young footballers in the country just now, but I think I'm disappointed.
"I think the referees could easily put an end to this and they're probably the ones who could do it, by saying 'no we're not going to continue to give soft free-kicks, we're not going to react to screaming, we're not going to react to some of the decisions that are going on'.
"But they look as if they're a bit frightened not to do what they think is correct at the moment."
West Ham have appealed against the decision and Moyes insisted the incident was accidental.
"You've always got a chance of losing players through suspension or injury, so if it happens we have to get on with it and deal with it.
"But it's very harsh on a player who's very fair and very honest in his work and he didn't in any way go to injure a player or do anything – it was an accidental push and maybe the players have got a bit of a responsibility to act correctly but I still felt it was easy for the referee or Stockley Park to get on with it."
The draw was Fulham's ninth of the season as their winless Premier League run now stretches back 12 matches to November, but defender Antonee Robinson said there is a "desperation" around the squad to come together.
"I'd definitely say it's a missed opportunity," Robinson told the club website.
"I'd say as a team now we're all looking to each game as a chance to win, we have to start picking up wins if we're going to be where we want to be and I feel like we've dominated the game and we haven't been in trouble defensively for many parts of the game.
"We've just got to turn it around and start getting shots on target and just get a bit more quality in our final play.
"I think that the lads know now we have to start picking up results, that's the reality of it now, we're in the back half of the season, we don't want to be getting relegated so every game we have to try our best to win.
"There's a real desperation about us to come together as a team and start trying to be tough, solid and going forward as well we're trying to create chances and get quality. Today it's not come off but hopefully going forward it'll be a lot better."
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