Steven Gerrard hit back at Jesse Marsch’s time-wasting accusations aimed at Aston Villa by claiming Leeds were guilty of it when they went down to ten men.
The contest at Elland Road was relatively uneventful Final goallessThe standout moment was Luis Sinisterra being red-carded after 48 minutes. He had deliberately blocked a Villa free-kick less than ten feet away.
The pendulum swung in Villa’s favour after that but they were unable to get past their opponents despite their man advantage.
However, after the final whistle it was Marsch who cut the more upset figure as he accused Gerrard’s men of slowing the match down to one played at a ‘snail’s pace.’
“Villa slows the game down and now it’s two or three opponents that we’ve had here that just at every moment want to throw the ball away, take a minute on every goal kick,” the Leeds boss told Sky Sports.
“We need some help to manage this, right? We can’t do it alone.
“And the sad thing is this is the best environment in the league for me and the fans don’t come here to watch a snail-paced match.”
Gerrard took issue with Marsch’s comments, suggesting classic time-wasting tactics were what his side reduced themselves to when they went a man down.
“He [referee Stuart Atwell] had a good game,” said Gerrard. “Is there anything he got wrong? That’s a good game. If referees don’t get anything wrong it’s a good game, so well done to Stuart.”
“Was he [Marsch]Are they happy with the time-wasting when they go to ten? It works both ways. I’m not really interested in what Jesse thinks in his opinion.
“My priority’s Aston Villa and I’m in here to talk about our performance. We’ll do what we need to do to get points and that won’t change.”
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