Leeds boss Daniel Farke accused Manchester City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma of faking injury to enable Pep Guardiola to deliver a tactical team talk during their match, prompting Farke to call for rule changes despite his respect for Guardiola.
According to a report from the Manchester Evening News, Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has accused Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma of feigning injury during their match at the Etihad Stadium to facilitate a tactical instruction session from Pep Guardiola.
The incident occurred “just before the hour mark,” when Donnarumma “went down and asked for treatment” with the score standing at 2-1 and Leeds “on top” after scoring early in the second half.
As the Italian was tended to, Guardiola “called all 10 outfield players together to deliver new instructions” after a halftime system change by Leeds had left City “on the back foot.”
While Farke was clear he was not criticizing Guardiola, he stated the reason for the stoppage was obvious:
“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.
He labelled the action “smart” and “within the rules,” but questioned the principle, adding, “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.”
The referee told Farke, “no, our hands are tied, we can’t do anything,” regarding the stoppage. Despite the incident and the subsequent equalization by Leeds, City stemmed the tide and secured a 3-2 victory via a late goal from Phil Foden.