OPINION
Stan Collymore has praised Leeds United Manager Marcelo Bielsa’s decision to give Aston Villa a goal in their heated Championship clash at the weekend.
In a column for the Mirror, Collymore wrote: “The one bright spot to the game was from Marcelo Bielsa, because letting Villa equalise was a wonderful gesture.
“But the Leeds boss shouldn’t have had to do it because it was the referee’s job to manage the game.”
In a game which was dominated by controversial acts of unsportsmanlike conduct, Bielsa certainly stuck out as being one of the more responsible figureheads at Elland Road on Sunday.
So it’s no surprise Collymore gushed about him as he was spot-on to do so.
The Argentine coach would have been well within his rights to order his team to continue playing normally after the incident happened, however it seemed he too believed that Villa should’ve been given the equaliser.
If you look to the rule book, the Whites technically didn’t do anything wrong, however there were questions regarding their sportsmanship after failing to kick the ball out of play whilst Jonathan Kodjia was down on the deck.
Arguably, as Collymore suggested, it should have been the referee to take charge of the players, and decide what should have happened once Leeds scored their only goal of the game.
However, as this didn’t happen, Bielsa should receive lots of praise for the way in which he dealt with the situation, without any real help from the match officials.
In reality, it was in fact a ‘wonderful gesture’ from Bielsa, and showed the Leeds boss in a positive light after he himself has been involved in controversy this season, such as the Spygate incident in the lead up to United’s fixture with Derby County earlier in the campaign.
It seems the Leeds boss made the correct decision against Villa at the weekend with regards to sportsmanship.