Leeds United boss Daniel Farke on 'fake' injuries after Man City Donnarumma team talk incident — YEP 29/11/25
By Graham Smyth
The Manchester City goalkeeper’s well-timed injury halted
Leeds United’s momentum.
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has called for a change to
the game's laws after Manchester City conducted a team talk while keeper
Gianluigi Donnarumma was down receiving treatment.
The Whites were on top in the second half after Farke's
half-time changes introduced Dominic Calvert-Lewin who made it 2-1. City were
visibly struggling to stop Leeds from playing and the game was paused so that
Donnarumma could receive treatment after going to ground. Pep Guardiola
immediately called all of his outfield players to the touchline and conducted a
team talk. Although City then did have a better spell, they conceded an
equaliser when Calvert-Lewin won a penalty and Lukas Nmecha found the net at
the second time of asking.
The hosts went on to win the game with Phil Foden's late
goal but the team talk incident became a major talking point in Farke's
post-game press conference. He made it clear he was not in favour of such a
tactic.
"Yes. Everyone knows why he went down, right?"
Farke began. "The elephant in the room. You can speak about it. Why he
went down, I think it was obvious. 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. I leave it with the authorities. It's within the rules. I asked the
fourth official at this point, do you want to do something, 'no our hands are
tied, we can't do anything.' But if we don't educate our players in football
what to do in terms of fair play, sportsmanship and you just try to bend the
rules to your advantage, and you can do a fake injury in order to do additional
team talks, it's nothing I personally like. But if it's within the rules I
can't complain."
Farke believes the officials had 'tools' they could use to
deal with such an incident but he would be in favour of altering the game's
laws to prevent it from happening.
"We should think about how we deal with it," he
said. "My recommendation was okay do me a favour, give every 50:50 in
favour of the away team. Probably after 90 minutes at 2-2 I would have blown
for full-time. I think there are tools you can use to make sure this won't
happen but if not then we have to change the rules. There's a reason the
goalkeeper goes down. It's not a question for myself, who am I, I'm a Premier
League manager, it's not a topic for me. I think it's for the authorities to
find a solution. Is it in the sense of fair play I would have my doubts."
The Leeds boss was keen to stress that he took no issue with
Guardiola, with whom he has a good relationship.
"I don't criticise my colleague, I don't criticise
Pep," he said. "If he has time to do this and there is an injury, I
would also do a team talk. It's not like he's done something wrong. We have a
great relationship. He's the best manager in the world. There's no one better
for changes during a game. There's not one per cent criticism on my colleague.
This happens, everyone knows, I think there are tools to deal with it or we
need to find other solutions."
