Leeds United boss Daniel Farke wasn’t happy with Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma going down for treatment during their defeat at the Etihad.
Gianluigi Donnarumma receives treatment during Manchester City’s win over Leeds United
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke accused Gianluigi Donnarumma of feigning injury to allow Pep Guardiola to deliver an impromptu team talk to his Manchester City players during the game at the Etihad. Donnarumma went down and asked for treatment just before the hour mark, with the visitors on top after Dominic Calvert-Lewin had cut the deficit to 2-1 early in the second half.
With the Italian being attended to by medical staff, Guardiola called all 10 outfield players together to deliver new instructions after Leeds had changed systems at half-time. That tactical change had left City on the back foot and although Leeds went on to equalise, City managed to stem the tide and snatched at injury time winner through Phil Foden.
Although Farke insisted he wasn’t being critical of Guardiola, he said the reason Donnarumma had gone down was obvious and called for a rule change to prevent it happening in the future.
“Everyone knows why he went down, right? It’s not like the elephant in the room. You can ask me what I think about it, why he went down, I think it was obvious,” he said.
“It’s within the rules. It’s smart. If I like it, if it’s in the sense of fair play, if it should be like this I keep it to myself and leave it to the authorities to find solutions to it. It’s within the rules. I asked the fourth official if he wanted to do something, he said ‘no, our hands are tied, we can’t do anything.
“If we don’t educate our players in football what to do in terms of fair play, sportsmanship, if you try to bend the rules to your advantage, and you can fake an injury in order to do an additional team talk, I think it’s not something I personally like, but if it’s within the rules I can’t complain about it.
“My recommendation is if this happens then every 50-50 to the away team rather than the home team. After 90 minutes at 2-2 I would have blown the whistle rather than all the time added on. There are tools you can use to make sure this doesn’t happen. There’s a reason why the goalkeeper goes down and not an outfield player, an outfield player would have to go off.
“I think for the authorities to find a solution, in the sense of fair play I have my doubts. I don’t criticise my colleague. It’s not that he (Guardiola) went down. If he has time to do that and if there’s an injury, I would do it.
“We have such a great relationship and Pep is by far the best manager in the world. To tweak something in a game there is nobody better. There’s not 1% criticism of Pep. The fact this happens, everyone knows it.”
Farke’s comments were put to Guardiola in his own press conference and the City boss said he had no idea why Donnarumma had gone down, before suggesting the Premier League would be rushing to fine City if they had bent the rules. He also made the point that he had been late for his press conference because Farke had spent so long speaking.
“To be honest, I didn’t speak with Gigio,” said Guardiola. “When it happened I looked back to the dugout and said ‘James, warm up’. I don’t know. Next press conference you can ask me and I will ask Gigio.
“Of course I would love to have the time-outs. I’m pretty sure (if) we do it again the Premier League will fine us again. It’s better that we not do it.
“When we are five seconds late after half-time always we have to pay a lot of money. Now we have to wait 30 minutes to come here because Daniel had to speak. After that is not a problem but hopefully they don’t fine me because I am 30 minutes late, it’s because Daniel Farke was here. Premier League you know it now.”