'Petrified' - James Maddison breaks Tottenham silence on controversial Leeds United incident
The Tottenham midfielder went down under a challenge from Leeds United striker Lukas Nmecha on Monday.
Tottenham midfielder James Maddison has hit out at ‘petrified’ referees after seeing claims for a late penalty against Leeds United denied on Monday.
Maddison went down under a challenge from fellow substitute Lukas Nmecha in second-half added-time, with the scores level at 1-1. Referee Jarred Gillett signalled for a corner, implying the Leeds striker got a touch on the ball.
The tackle was subject to a VAR review, with the Premier League Match Centre writing on X they deemed Nmecha made contact with the ball. Opinion has been split and multiple replays have been analysed, with Maddison himself now speaking out.
In a post on his Instagram story, the Tottenham midfielder wrote: "For clarity... The small tiny touch on the ball to change direction came from the outside of my right foot not Nmecha and I told the ref that but the check was over in about 20 seconds. Officials are petrified to make decisions on the pitch now because of VAR. We keep fighting. COYS"
The game finished 1-1 after an eventual 15 minutes of added-time, with Leeds taking a good point on the road despite already being mathematically safe. But debate has continued as to whether Tottenham should have been given the chance to claim all three points from the spot.
What else has been said on Tottenham vs Leeds United penalty incident?
“My first thought when I saw it was ‘blimey, they’ve got a penalty’,” former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher told talkSPORT. “You were 13 minutes into stoppage time. When you see the replay, he does just catch the ball, there’s no doubt about that. But it’s one of them, he gets a bit lucky, because if he doesn’t get the ball it’s clearly a penalty.”
Jamie O’Hara, a former Tottenham defender, was adamant Nmecha fouled Maddison. He told Sky Sports: “It’s a penalty. I’m sorry, I don’t care what anyone says and you could show me a million angles of this, Where does the ball move?
“I don’t believe there is enough movement from the ball and the player. That’s a penalty. There is no movement, that ball does not move, Maddison gets his foot in the way and there’s a foul. That is a penalty and he bottled it, the ref.
“We saw a crazy decision the other day at West Ham, which was a foul, but they took an age over that decision. They looked at it for over five minutes to make sure they got that right. Last night, they looked at it for 30 seconds and said ‘no carry on’.”