Tim Sherwood has accused Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa of cynicism after he gave Aston Villa a goal back in the Championship game on Sunday.
Bielsa demanded that his players let Villa walk through them to equalise after Leeds scored with a Villa player down injured.
In the ensuing fracas, Patrick Bamford went down and Anwar El Ghazi was sent off, but video replays showed he did nothing and the Leeds striker is now facing a two-match ban for deception.
Sherwood said Bamford would be “embarrassed” by that but said the two-game punishment was correct.
He also said that Bielsa would never have given the goal if the game had meant something.
Talking on Sky Sports the Debate show (Sky Sports, Tuesday, 10pm) Sherwood said, “You can’t change the law now. The law says if you kid a ref you’re going to get two games that’s what you should get. He’s got more than that because he’ll be embarrassed by that.
“Going back to Bielsa, letting them score, there’s nothing on the game, it’s easy to do that. If there had been anything on the game he wouldn’t have done that.”
Host Geoff Shreeves said, “That’s cynical”, but Sherwood wasn’t backing down.
“I’m just saying what I feel about the guy. It will be interesting to see if they play each other in the play-offs, see if he does it there.”
OPINION
Sherwood obviously doesn’t know much about Bielsa if he’s levelling this accusation at him. The Leeds manager is highly principled and you could see from the way he commanded his players to let the goal be scored how he felt about it. He was hurt by accusations of cheating after the spygate scandal, where he honestly believed he was doing nothing wrong, and we honestly believe that he would have done the same thing in the play-off final. What would be interesting is how the Leeds fans, and possibly Andrea Radrzzani, would react to him if he did it then. As it is, the incident could galvanise Leeds but it’s left them weaker going into the play-offs, with Bamford, at present their only fit striker, facing a two-match ban. That would include the first leg of the semi-final and that could have a big impact on their promotion prospects.