Leeds v Villa

Kodjia went down after a challenge. He was injured as he couldn't carry on.

Leeds played on and scored but during playing on they paused and looked like they were going to put the ball out, Villa stopped then Leeds carried on.

Klich who scored was throttled by Villa straight away and a melee followed which led to a Villa red.

Bielsa was screaming to allow Villa to score but some Leeds players didn't want to.

It comes down to the fact that 90% of the time late on in games players go down and nothing is up with them. On this occasion Kodjia happened to be injured but far too often players go down just to waste time and stop momentum of a counter attack. So well done Leeds for playing on I say. I hate when teams kick it out and the player gets up straight away or the physio comes on to perform open heart surgery only for the player to be running about 30 seconds later which is what happens most of the time.

Youtube clip:

Surely all of this speculation (and shenanigans) would be academic if someone from the medical staff was allowed onto the pitch where a player stays down? Play can then continue around them. This seems to work perfectly well in rugby (and they still manage better punch-ups)!

I think it could be a dangerous tactic unfortunately, it works well in rugby because of the nature of the game. In football you can spread the play much quicker and the part of the pitch that is "Active" can be all over. In rugby its a little easier to see where is active and where its un-safe and as such the game gets stopped when play gets to close to a injured player.

I think it should be down to the ref, if they think the injury is bad enough stop play, if not play on then there is no need for players to have any responsibility to stop the game. Sure we may get some time wasting still but that is no change and if the ref can keep time properly then it wouldnt matter.

Always thought that you played to the whistle. If the referee does not deem that play should be stopped then you carry on playing.

The Villa player was down but didn't seem seriously injured so if the other Villa players decide to stop playing that's their decision.

The real issue is that when a player goes down and stays down should the opposition kick the ball out of play? Apparently earlier in the game Villa had kicked the ball out when a Leeds player was down, however, in this instance when Villa had a man down Leeds didn't reciprocate but played on and promptly scored. The fact that the Leeds manager told his players to let Villa equalise straight from the kick off restored some integrity to the game and he needs to be applauded.