Chelsea’s McFarlane Addresses Robert Sanchez Fake Injury Criticism<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chelsea’s first game in the post-Liam Rosenior era was a win at Wembley, as they advanced to the FA Cup semi-final with a 1-0 win over in-form Leeds United at the national stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, stand-in boss Calum McFarlane has come under a lot of criticism for one action in the capital win, which will see his side take on Manchester City in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McFarlane, who managed Chelsea in an interim period earlier in the campaign when Enzo Maresca left the club back in January. He is back at the hilt until the end of the season, with the Blues having five games left in their campaign to secure European football either by a cup win or a top-seven finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Calum McFarlane Criticised for Admitting Chelsea Time-Wasting Tactics vs Leedschelsea mcfarlane<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, their tactics during the win were criticised. The 40-year-old coach was seen telling centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo to instruct goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to go down with ‘injury’, allowing Chelsea to waste time and update their tactics based on the way the game was panning out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a common tactic in football at present, utilised by most teams holding a slim margin before the end of the game, though it is seemingly frowned upon by fans across the beautiful game for its unsportsmanlike nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McFarlane even admitted to as much in his post-game press conference, stating: Dominic Calvert-Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ally McCoist Brings up Man Utd Red as He Drops Verdict on Leeds Hair Pull vs ChelseaIt’s an issue that is becoming quite the epidemic in the modern English game at present…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I used it as an opportunity to talk to the players and get the information out there that we needed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plan worked. Enzo Fernandez’s first half header was enough to separate the two sides, with the Argentine’s cleverly-timed run seeing him nod past Lucas Perri midway through the first half, and Leeds couldn’t get themselves back into the game despite having a number of good chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tosin Adarabioyo appeared to be caught on camera telling Robert S\u00e1nchez to go down so Chelsea could change tactics during their FA Cup semi final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is a rule change needed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Chelsea academy star Ethan Ampadu did try to get in on the team talk, sussing the situation out and listening in to McFarlane’s team talk, though his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leeds Player Past and Present Call for Rule ChangePascal StruijkUnsurprisingly, Leeds skipper Pascal Struijk took objection to the tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was supposedly overheard, via LeedsPress, telling Australian referee Jarred Gillett that it was the fourth time this had happened to Leeds this season, with the bending of the rules proving advantageous in the Whites’ best cup run in over 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And former Leeds and Chelsea goalkeeper, Rob Green, further stating that the rule needs to be stopped. The twelve-time England cap said, on BBC Radio 5 Live: \u201cAs a former keeper, having played for Leeds, it was a former plan as a keeper to go down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut it needs to be stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, teams will continue to use the rule to their benefit unless new laws come in to stop time-wasting – though with this high-profile incident being admitted by McFarlane, it may accelerate any ideas to stop goalkeepers feigning injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chelsea will now turn their attention to securing a European spot, though they have tough fixtures against Liverpool, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland in the meantime – and any time-wasting from opposition goalkeeping units could come back to haunt them in their search for a continental spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea’s McFarlane Addresses Robert Sanchez Fake Injury Criticism Chelsea’s first game in the post-Liam Rosenior era was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[26],"class_list":{"0":"post-96","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds-united","8":"tag-leeds"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agajahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}