Daniel Farke was forced to take off Ao Tanaka in Leeds v Norwich. (Credit: Sky Sports)

Tanaka Exclusive: 'Leeds ace should be banned after Norwich incident'

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). FOCUS Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

Published on:

22 Jan 2025, 4:08 pm

Ao Tanaka should have been sent off as Leeds beat Norwich 2-0 at Elland Road on Wednesday night, according to Keith Hackett.

Tanaka, 26, has been in stellar form for the Whites this season but Daniel Farke was forced to substitute him off against the Canaries after narrowly avoiding a second yellow card.

The Japan midfielder was booked in the first half by referee Matthew Donohue for a late challenge on Emiliano Marcondes.

Around 10 minutes after the break, Tanaka went in strong and late on Marcondes again.

Tanaka escapes suspension as Leeds boss Farke hailed

However, Donohue did no more than give the former Fortuna Dusseldorf star a talking to as Norwich's staff remonstrated with the fourth official about why he wasn't sent off.

After seeing footage of Tanaka's second-half foul on Marcondes, former Premier League and FIFA referee Hackett couldn't believe that Donohue didn't send the Japan international off and, as a result, hand him a one-match ban.

Hackett did, however, praise Farke for substituting him off for Junior Firpo minutes later.

"Tanaka should have received a second yellow for this reckless challenge," the ex-PGMOL general manager told MOT Leeds News.

Ao Tanaka escapes red in Leeds v Norwich. (Credit: Sky Sports+)

"Well done to his manager, Farke.

"He witnessed what had happened and discreetly did the right thing to stop his team from going down to ten men."

Tanaka picked up his fourth booking of the Championship season in the win over Norwich.

He's scored in each of Leeds' last two games and, overall, has been pivotal to the Yorkshire club's promotion bid.

The Whites' next league game is a huge one against promotion rivals Burnley at Turf Moor on Monday (27 January) so there's no doubt Farke will be relieved to have Tanaka available for that.

In other Leeds United news, the Whites have a major deal done for a new goalkeeper signing.

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Keith Hackett

Ao Tanaka