Micah Richards defends Sam Allardyce after what he saw in Leeds United defeat v Manchester City
Micah Richards has leapt to the defence of Sam Allardyce after he said he was as good as Pep Guardiola before Leeds United’s loss to Manchester City.
The Whites brought in Allardyce for the final four games to try and save them from relegation, but he opened his reign with a 2-1 loss at the Etihad Stadium despite claiming he was “as good as” Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta in his first press conference.
But Richards has defended his comments, suggesting there may have been an ulterior motive behind them and feels it may have helped the players be more positive despite the result.
“Plenty of sniggering and criticism for Sam Allardyce after his comments comparing himself to Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. What is it we want? Managers who say a load of meaningless words or an individual who actually has something to say?” he wrote in his Daily Mail column (8 May).
“Have you thought about it another way and considered that Allardyce could actually have been trying to set a positive tone for a squad short on confidence?
“Perhaps he was trying to put the attention on him rather than on the players? They lost at City but left the pitch in a positive frame of mind.
“I wouldn’t dream of saying I know him well but I’ve met Allardyce a couple of times and he is a lovely fellow with plenty of belief. He will back himself to get enough out of Leeds’ players to save them — where is the crime in that?”
Finally
It’s about time someone paid attention to the fact that Allardyce doesn’t care about the reaction of the press against him if it helps the team.
The comments surely have a bit of truth to them. He believes them wholeheartedly, but that isn’t why he’s telling the world and he certainly isn’t looking for the approval of anyone else.
But by making the comments all the attention was on him and his performance rather than the players on the pitch, which will have made their lives a little bit easier.
Defeat won’t have made things any easier obviously, but the players will now have a better idea of what type of thing Allardyce wants from them and they didn’t take a battering against the best team in Europe right now.
Depending on results it’s still in our hands and if any of the boss’ confidence can rub off on the players then safety is still an option.
In other Leeds news, Danny Murphy has urged Leeds to keep Big Sam for next season.