With the weekend’s Championship clash between Leeds United and Aston Villa making headlines for a whole variety of reasons, one of the moments of the match that shouldn’t be overshadowed was manager Marcelo Bielsa’s decision to show the ‘utmost faith’ to our visitors when instructing the side to let them equalise.
Following the clash between Liam Cooper and Jonathan Kodjia, the referee allowed play to continue and with a numbers of players stopping so the ball could be put out of play, Tyler Roberts indicated he was about to do that, before then clipping the ball to Mats Klich who put it in the back of the net.
Following some unwelcomed scenes on the pitch as Villa let their tempers get the better of them, Bielsa was the bigger man with his instruction to let Albert Adomah walkthrough to level, even if Pontus Jansson brilliantly didn’t get the message.
With most of the headlines being focused on other issues from the game, former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher applauded Bielsa’s decision as he spoke to Ref Watch and Sky Sports this week.
“There’s nothing wrong with what’s happened and there’s nothing in the laws of the game that say the Leeds players have to tackle him. There’s no doubt in my mind that Leeds have done the correct thing.”