Marcelo Bielsa sheds light on Pontus Jansson situation

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Leeds United played out a bizarre 1-1 draw with Aston Villa today.

Leeds United played out a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa this afternoon, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the tale of a bizarre situation at Elland Road.

After Sheffield United beat Ipswich Town on Saturday evening, Leeds knew that their automatic promotion hopes were all but over, with a ridiculous goal swing needed as well as two wins.

They took on a Villa side seeking an 11^th win in a row, but with 15 minutes to play, it looked like the game would end in a 0-0 draw.

That’s before total chaos ensued. Jonathan Kodjia went down injured, and whilst Tyler Roberts slowed down to knock the ball out of play, he actually played it forward for Mateusz Klich to score and opening the scoring.

Villa players were incensed having felt they were tricked into stopping running, especially having put the ball out of play for Adam Forshaw to receive treatment earlier in the game.

Anwar El Ghazi was sent off for ‘striking’ Patrick Bamford in the ensuring melee when footage shows no contact was made, and Marcelo Bielsa then decided to let Villa score an equaliser from the kick off.

Albert Adomah strolled forward to score, but an unhappy Pontus Jansson seemingly didn’t get the message and attempted to tackle the winger, with bizarre scenes unfolding at frantic speed.

Jansson and Adomah made up at full time, and Bielsa sarcastically suggested to Leeds Live that Jansson ignored his authority, before merely believing that Jansson didn’t want to lose an advantage Leeds fought so hard for.

“Jansson did not want to listen. This diminishes my authority. I don’t know what the consequences are when you lose the faith of the player. This is my ironic response to you,” said Bielsa. “My analysis, not everyone accepts destiny in the same way. When you have to give up something so hard to reach,” he added.

The whole thing left Wigan midfielder Josh Windass baffled on Twitter, as he wondered what on earth Jansson was doing when it was clear Leeds were allowing Adomah to score – just like many others were.