Sunday 10 December 2017 00:18, UK
A frustrated Roy Hodgson told angry Crystal Palace fans that Christian Benteke was not the chosen penalty taker after his last-gasp miss against Bournemouth.
Benteke, without a goal in 12 games, saw his spot-kick saved by Asmir Begovic in the 93rd minute as Palace drew 2-2 at Selhurst Park on Saturday, despite usual penalty taker Luka Milivojevic, who scored an earlier penalty, still being on the pitch.
Hodgson was asked by disgruntled fans leaving the pitch after the game why he had chosen Benteke as the penalty taker, but the Palace manager responded by insisting he had not told the Belgian to take over duties.
The former England boss insists there was no animosity or altercation with supporters, even though security did intervene, and did not hide his frustration at Benteke for his decision to take the penalty.
Hodgson said: "I am frustrated, especially when you see a penalty missed in the last minutes of the game, by someone who has not been designated as a penalty taker, but has decided at the last minute that he is the man to take the penalty.
"I think if you do that, you've really got to score it, or you risk the wrath of a lot of people, not least of all your manager, coaches and team-mates."
Asked if the order from the bench was for Milivojevic to take the spot kick, Hodgson said: "Yes, that's true, yes.
"Unfortunately if it was a training session, and you award a penalty, and the player you don't want to take the penalty goes up and takes the ball, you can stop it.
"But in a Premier League game, we are too far from the penalty spot on the bench, and we're not allowed on the field of play, so unless the other players on the field are closer and manage to wrestle the ball from him, then he takes it, the guy who has decided to take it.
"Really what he needs to do is to score, otherwise he will be subject to the wrath from his manager, coaches and team-mates, because they'll say really and truly, you shouldn't have done that."
Asked about speaking with the fans at Selhurst Park on his way back to the dressing room, Hodgson played down any incidents, insisting it was all amicable.
"I wasn't unhappy with [the question], I was actually trying to explain to the fellow," Hodgson said. "The fellow said: 'Why did you let Benteke take the penalty?' And I told him, 'well, we actually didn't designate Benteke.'
"But of course then the security guard, who is with me, he thinks in some way I'm being abused by the fan, who is just simply asking a question, and I was simply answering the question.
"But of course then when a security guard gets involved, starts pushing the guy back, it looks like there is a problem, but it's really quite simple.
"A couple of young fans asked [the same], and I made it clear to them that we didn't tell Benteke, he decided himself."
In his post-match press conference, Hodgson said none of his players were able to wrestle the ball off Benteke, and added that the striker is "stunned" at what happened having also been booed off the pitch by Palace fans.
"Benteke got hold of the ball. It was a unilateral decision, no one on our team was able to wrestle the ball from him. We the management don't expect players to change those decisions, we tried to shout out our instructions, they obviously didn't reach the penalty spot.
"I think Christian is stunned, shocked and very disappointed. But I actually thought he played well, that's the best I've seen him play in a Palace shirt in my time here.
"It's a great disappointment. Rather than crown that performance he's put himself in a bit of a black hole with Palace supporters because he's missed.
"He was booed off at the end of the game, but I think he was booed off because having seen us work as hard as we did in the second half, when the referee blew for that penalty the fans were thinking we'd won it. Then the guy who misses it, I'm afraid you have to accept he'll be booed off the field, and that's not just here, that's anywhere around the world."
Asked if Benteke would be told again not to step up for future penalty duties, Hodgson added: "I think he's been told that already.
"The next time there's a penalty, after missing one that's deprived us of two very valuable points, I can't imagine he'll be racing for the ball again."
Palace are now bottom of the Premier League, and when asked if pressure was building, Hodgson's answer was simple.
He said: "Of course it is, and if we don't win on Tuesday, it will put more pressure on Saturday! The bottom line is we are in the bottom three, we are down there, and we are divorced from the teams where we would like to be by quite a few points.
"We were clearly more dominant and had more chances in the first half. The perfect opportunity is given to you in the 91st minute but we didn't take it, and you can't blame anybody but yourself for that."
