Manager David Moyes felt his West Ham side were owed an apology after being “disrespected” by not being awarded a late penalty against Liverpool.
The Hammers lost 2-1 on Wednesday but Moyes was angry a spot-kick was not given after Thiago’s arm hit the ball.
Referee Chris Kavanagh did not give a penalty and video assistant referee Neil Swarbrick did not tell him to review the incident on a monitor.
“VAR, for me, showed no respect whatsoever to us,” said Moyes. “You’ll probably hear them coming out with some rubbish about he [Thiago] needed to break his fall, but if you lunge, it’s your own fault for lunging and being out of control in the tackle.
“When you lunge for the ball, that completely nullifies anything they’re saying about breaking your fall. I think it’s a penalty kick.
“The hardest thing to take is the disrespect from VAR, that VAR wouldn’t have at least said to the referee that this might be worth having a look. That tells me they don’t see that as even close to a decision. I’m surprised. Somebody in VAR didn’t have enough football knowledge to understand that this could be close.”
Referees body PGMOL has apologised once to Arsenal and twice to Brighton this season after errors by officials in Premier League matches.
West Ham took the lead through Lucas Paqueta, but Cody Gakpo equalised before Joel Matip headed in a second-half winner for Liverpool.
Moyes was furious his side, 14th in the table, did not get a late penalty — and a chance to grab a vital point in their bid to stay in the Premier League.
“The handball rule has changed dramatically and I don’t like a lot of it, to be fair,” he added. “Do I think the boy meant for it to hit his hand? No I didn’t. But he got his hand in the way of a ball going through made by his own actions.
“They might need to apologise to the football club because we’re trying to get points to be a Premier League team.”
The win took Liverpool above Tottenham and into sixth as they look to secure European qualification to salvage something from a difficult season.
On the penalty decision, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp said: “I thought he [Thiago] just fell on the ball, but I can see why Moyes would think different.”
