Leeds Word On The Tweet

‘I’m totally with Bielsa on this’ – Lots of Leeds fans love the boss’ claim ahead of Play-Offs

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We kick off our Play-Offs run against Derby County tomorrow, with just 180 minutes of football now all that stands between the Whites and a shot at securing a Premier League berth at Wembley.

To get the better of the Rams, manager Marcelo Bielsa is keen to have the ball in play as long as possible, and has fans on Twitter buzzing after stating that the players will not concede possession if an opposition player is down injured.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s first-leg at Pride Park, the boss said, as per quotes by the Yorkshire Evening Post’s Phil Hay: “The rules says the person who has to take the decision [to stop play] is the ref.”

After the scenes that unfolded against Aston Villa in the penultimate weekend of the regular season, it would be a fair assumption to see the boss’ claim as a reaction to what saw all but Pontus Jansson allow Albert Adomah to equalise.

Bielsa, though, refuted this suggestion on Thursday.

“This has nothing to do with the situation against Aston Villa because we feinted to put the ball out and didn’t,” he added. “I’m not talking about that [anymore]. We just want to find a solution to this moment of doubt.”

To avoid a repeat of the Villa bench’s touchline antics with Derby’s coaching staff, Bielsa will inform Frank Lampard and Rams captain Richard Keogh ahead of kick-off that we will not be kicking the ball out of play if one of their players is down injured.

Hopefully having the ball in play for longer periods of the game will help to see Bielsa guide us to a third – and then fourth – win over the Rams this season, having beaten Lampard’s side 4-1 on our previous venture to Pride Park.

For now, though, here’s how some of our fans reacted on Twitter to Bielsa stating that we will not concede possession…

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