Alan Shearer has blasted Luke Ayling for his red card during Leeds United’s defeat on Match of the Day 2.
It’s safe to say that Leeds United endured a horrible weekend after travelling down to London on a Sunday afternoon to see their side lose 2-1, slip into the relegation zone with just three games left to play and saw their stand-in captain Ayling given his marching orders.
Will Leeds be relegated?
Yes!
No!
The full back has been a superb servant for the Whites having racked up 220 appearances since joining back in 2016, but his absence for the remainder of the season could be very costly for Leeds.
Ayling went flying in two-footed on Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli right in front of the Leeds fans, with Shearer labelling the tackle as ‘crazy’ when he spoke on Match of the Day 2.
(38:20) “It’s a crazy challenge, Wrighty mentioned it, it’s out of frustration because he was being run ragged by Martinelli, granted he wasn’t getting a lot of help, but what is he thinking of.
The problems that Leeds have had this season has been not able to get all their players out onto the pitch because of injuries and you come to the end of the season and he does that challenge and he’s now out of it too.”
TIF Thoughts on Ayling’s tackle…
It was a disgusting challenge from Ayling that could have had Martinelli in a lot more pain if the winger was caught with his foot planted into the ground and the fact that Ayling never complained when VAR overturned the decision to hand him a red card, shows he knew it wasn’t a great tackle.
With Stuart Dallas being ruled out for a prolonged period of time earlier last week with a broken femur and now Ayling will play no further part in this campaign it doesn’t leave Jesse Marsch with a headache as they were two of the regulars in the Leeds teams love the last few years, so they’ll have to replace their experience and presence both on and off the pitch.
In other news: Forget Ayling: BBC man fuming at what he spotted Leeds ace doing ‘all game’