“I hate this, I don’t think it’s a red card, It’s just what he wanted, He won’t win a fair play prize with his rolling around and diving”- Daniel Farke reveals he ‘hates’ what Preston player did v Leeds United as he accuses player of play acting
Leeds United were reduced to 10 men during their 2-1 defeat to Preston North End as Illan Meslier raised his hands to casually slap Milutin Osmajić, right in view of the referee.
Daniel Farke’s side were rightly in great spirits after beating Ipswich Town 4-0 prior to Christmas, hoping to cut the gap to four points before their clash with Leicester tonight.
However, Deepdale has never been an easy away day in the Championship for any team, and Leeds proved to come unstuck against Ryan Lowe’s side.
It wasn’t a brilliant first half to watch for the neutral as a physical battle between the two sides yielded little chances, but the second 45 burst into life.
The manner in which the game opened up wasn’t ideal for the Whites, with Illan Meslier claiming a routine cross, then barged by a Preston attacker and wound up in the aftermath by Milutin Osmajic following up.
Meslier then decided to lay his hand on the Preston forward’s face, not impressed as the Montenegrin striker went down after the contact, and the referee didn’t hesitate to walk the Frenchman.
Karl Darlow’s first action was to pick the ball out of his net as a smart header from Alan Browne gave the home side the lead.
Farke was not happy after the game for a number of reasons, given the lack of bite in attack, the fact that Leeds missed a big opportunity, and how the theatrics of the Preston crowd around Meslier brought about the red card.
He spoke post-match and said this (via Phil Hay):
“The situation is obvious. He gets a knock from the first place. The second player who is nothing to do with it gives him a knock to provoke something. It’s just what he (Osmajic) wanted.
“He won’t win a fair play prize with his rolling around and diving. I hate this. But I more have to concentrate on what we could have done better. You could argue that we gave the referee a decision to make. He should be smarter. But I don’t think it’s a red card.
Anyone watching on could see Preston were trying to frustrate Leeds into making mistakes like this, being overly aggressive, and it worked.
They got under Meslier’s skin out of nothing, and brought about a red card offence with underhanded methods, but you can’t blame the Preston player.
Meslier simply just has to not rise to it – ignore him and set up a counter attack instead of slapping someone with the ref five yards away.
As fans, we cannot be annoyed at how it happened, Mateusz Klich did it every week and we loved it.
