Big Sam calls out Man Utd and Liverpool managers week after Arsenal and City dig

Leeds United interim boss Sam Allardyce has warned Jurgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag not to look down their noses at time-wasting tactics from other teams when Liverpool and Manchester United are often guilty of running down the clock themselves. Allardyce is preparing to take charge of his second game with the Whites on the weekend against Newcastle United, who have often been accused of wasting time while ahead during the latter stages of crucial matches.

The Magpies were slammed by Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta for employing disruptive tactics earlier this season, although Eddie Howe was on the receiving end of the same problem against the Gunners last weekend. Arsenal managed to waste around 12 minutes of time at St James’ Park after moving into a two-goal lead, leaving Newcastle incensed despite deploying similar tactics during the campaign.

Allardyce was quizzed on the topic of time-wasting in Thursday’s press conference but was quick to insist that such allegations from managers are ‘daft’, with every team in the Premier League having been guilty of committing the offence at some stage this season.

The Leeds boss responded by asking a question of his own, saying: “Who doesn’t do it? Who complained?”. When it was put to Allardyce that Klopp and Ten Hag have been among those pointing the finger at teams for running down the clock, he said: “He [Klopp] time-wastes, he [Ten Hag] time-wastes as well. They all time-waste [in the] last five minutes when they’re winning 2-1, don’t be daft. That’s rubbish.”

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He then explained that he feels ball-in-play is a greater concern than time-wasting for most teams in the Premier League, with overworked squads playing more football than ever at a pace which Allardyce believes to be increasingly quick.

“We’ve been talking about whether ball-in-play can be improved but the game is ferocious and quick enough as it is,” he added. “Players are fatiguing [quicker] and injuries and resources are more strained than ever before.

“If you speed the game up even more and increase the level of time they’re on the pitch, you’re going to get more injuries and more crippling injuries that you’ve ever got because it’s never been as quick as it is now. With it being so quick, recovery time becomes of the essence, and because there are so many games there is no recovery time.

“Because there’s no recovery time, you get more injuries and you ultimately end up getting more and more chronic injuries which may limit a player’s career to a lot shorter than it should be, but we can’t do anything about that because the players ask for so much money and we have to try and increase our profits and increase our turnover to fund the players that are so expensive to bring into Premier League football.”

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