Leeds United boss Sam Allardyce takes aim at Liverpool and Man Utd as he defends Newcastle United

Leeds United boss Sam Allardyce has defended Newcastle United against time-wasting accusations ahead of the Magpies’ trip to Elland Road on Saturday.

Allardyce said questions about the use of ‘dark arts’ or ‘time-wasting’ are “daft” as all clubs are guilty of running down the clock or managing the game when in front.

Speaking about the subject in his pre-match press conference for Saturday’s Premier League meeting with Newcastle, Allardyce claimed plenty of other clubs have committed the same offence levelled at Newcastle.

He was quizzed on the subject ahead of facing Eddie Howe’s side but responded: “Who doesn’t do it? Who complained?”

It was claimed to Allardyce Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag have been among those complaining about sides running down the clock.

And Allardyce continued: “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.”

He added: “We’ve been talking about whether ball-in-play can be improved but the game is ferocious and quick enough as it is. 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.”