Bosses in war of words over time-wasting

STEVEN GERRARD said he did not care about the opinions of Jesse Marsch after the Leeds boss accused Aston Villa of time-wasting.

A bad-tempered encounter finished goalless at Elland Road after Villa failed to take advantage when home winger Luis Sinisterra was sent off in the 48th minute. Tensions had not eased after the game, either. Marsch — serving a touchline ban following his clash with the officials at Brentford last month — criticised Villa’s tactics in attempting to slow the game and also hinted at his unhappiness with referee Stuart Attwell.

But Gerrard hit back, saying: ‘Was he happy with their time-wasting when they went to 10? It works both ways. I’m not really interested in what Jesse thinks and his opinion. My priority is Aston Villa and I’m here to talk about our performance and what we need to do to get points.’

As for Attwell, who was targeted by the home crowd, Gerrard said: ‘He had a good game. Is there anything he got wrong? If the refs don’t get anything wrong, that’s a good game. Well done to Stuart.’ But Marsch was not happy and claimed Villa had ruined the spectacle for supporters. ‘I will be speaking to someone from the league,’ he said. ‘I’ve already spoken to the referees’ committee. This is clearly a tactic. They took up another hour and a half of our time this week to remind us they will do better at controlling the run of play in matches.

‘I didn’t create that dialogue, that’s not my agenda, that’s the league’s agenda. I feel bad for our fans when they have to come here and watch that. ‘I feel we almost have to apologise to the fans. They want to see an entertaining game, but they get a match which is slowed down by the opponents from the first whistle.

‘It’s respect for how we play against the ball and the aggression we show. Teams are trying to flip the script on that. It’s not new. I’ve encountered that in my career.’ Gerrard said: ‘We knew it was going to be competitive. We wanted to frustrate Leeds. Leeds want to get into a rhythm, they want to run all over you. We slowed the game to our tempo. We went to war when we needed to go to war. ‘The sending-off was helpful, but from that moment we had to be better and drag the points away from Leeds.’