Leeds United and Aston Villa played out an incredible 1-1 draw at Elland Road at the weekend.
A number of Leeds fans have criticised Aston Villa boss Dean Smith after he confirmed to Sky Sports that he asked Marcelo Bielsa to allow the Villans to equalise after Mateusz Klich broke the deadlock in Sunday’s game in controversial circumstances.
Klich found the back of the net after the visitors had expected the ball to be put out for a throw in as Jonathan Kodjia lay on the ground injured.
Once the melees on and off the pitch calmed down, Bielsa seemed to instruct his players to allow Villa to run the ball into the net for an immediate equaliser. And after the game, Smith confirmed to Sky Sports that he had asked for Leeds to allow the equaliser to be scored.
Unsurprisingly, the incident has divided opinion amongst fans of both sides. And there are some Leeds supporters who have slammed Smith for asking Bielsa to instruct his side to allow Villa to score straight away.
Sunday was Smith’s second trip to Elland Road this season, with the Englishman also being in the dug-out for an ill-tempered game between Leeds and Brentford before he left Griffin Park for the Villa job.
That game also ended 1-1, with the Bees’ goal coming from a Neal Maupay penalty. It must be noted that Olly Watkins faced no retrospective punishment, but many Whites fans felt that he dived to win the spot-kick. He certainly appeared to be heading to ground before contact with Bailey Peacock-Farrell was made.
Those who believe that Watkins dived believe that Smith had absolutely no right to make requests this past weekend when there was no suggestion on that occasion that Brentford would deliberately miss the penalty or Leeds would be allowed to get an uncontested goal back.
Here is how some of the Whites supporters reacted to Smith’s comments…
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