'Hate this behaviour' - Leeds United boss reacts to Illan Meslier red card and referee influence — YEP 26/12/23

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke was disappointed with the reaction by Milutin Osmajic to Illan Meslier's right-arm swipe which saw the French goalkeeper shown a straight red card.

By Joe Donnohue

The Whites were reduced to ten men shortly after the beginning of the second half as Meslier was penalised for raising his hands to the Preston forward. After the team's eventual 2-1 defeat at Deepdale, Farke bemoaned the reaction by North End forward Osmajic but admitted he could not complain too vehemently due to the nature of his goalkeeper's indiscretion.

"He catches the cross and he gets the first knock from the first player," Farke began. "And the second player who has nothing to do with the situation runs over [from] 10 or 15 yards and gives Illan a hard knock against his body because he just wants to provoke something. Illan reacts then the player goes down, rolls around ten times after a little movement of Illan - it's just what he wanted.

"I think as a referee you should sense this also and not to influence the game in this way because it was just one target in this situation for the player to provoke a red card. You won't win the Fair Play prize with this and his diving," the Leeds manager said.

Meslier's contact with Osmajic's face led the Montenegrin forward to fall to the floor, which Farke found a tad theatrical, but referee Josh Smith quickly produced a red card.

"If I'm honest, I hate this behaviour and also this diving and rolling around and trying to provoke red cards but to be honest, I also can't complain about this because sometimes this is what a team does who's searching for their momentum, plays against a team that was praised so much in the last game against Ipswich, trying to provoke something. This is what he did.

"For me, it's more like to concentrate on what we could have done better and yes, you can argue we gave the referee a decision to make with this little movement of Illan and he should react smart in this situation, although I don't think it should be a red card," Farke added.

The Leeds boss also suggested Smith reacted to the swell of a sold-out home stadium baying for blood when making his decision to send Meslier for an early bath.

"Normally, as a referee everyone in the stadium knows, okay come on, he tries to provoke something, get them both together, give the Preston player for giving him a knock, diving, rolling around the yellow card, give Illan a yellow and say 'come on, you can't react like this' and we play further on because that would be a fair outcome for a proper football game. With a red card he influenced the game in a way which it was a completely different game.

"It's an away game, it's a spicy atmosphere, everyone here the sold out stadium is asking for a red card is quite normal in this situation so don't give the referee even a little, a small chance to give a red card. Out of such a situation Illan has to learn," Farke added.

Meslier's expulsion is likely to be deemed violent conduct and as a result, he will be expected to miss three matches: West Bromwich Albion (a), Birmingham City (h) and Peterborough United (a) - the latter in the FA Cup.