Norwich City boss makes Leeds United declaration after Elland Road defeat with Ao Tanaka red card view

Johannes Hoff Thorup, the manager of Norwich City, gave his honest opinion on whether Ao Tanaka should have been sent off following Wednesday night’s 2-0 loss at Elland Road against Leeds United. In the 51st minute, Tanaka, a Japanese international for United, tripped Norwich player Emiliano Marcondes during a late challenge, although he was previously booked and did not receive a second yellow card. Referee Matt Donohue granted the Canaries the advantage while Norwich was still possession of the ball and attacking, and he was only blown up for a second foul shortly after.

After Tanaka escaped a second booking, the midfielder was replaced in a double change that also included the substitution of Junior Firpo and Ilia Gruev for Sam Byram. Even while Thorup acknowledged that Donohue had made a “big call,” he insisted that Leeds deserved their win and that his team’s defeat could not be attributed to the Tanaka decision. After a beautiful Whites move, Manor Solomon put Norwich up after 40 seconds. In the 65th minute, Solomon assisted United’s second goal through Dan James.

When questioned whether Tanaka should have lost it, Thorup responded, “I had a word with the ref afterwards because I of course needed some kind of explanation on that, it’s a big call,” during his post-match news conference.The last thing I want to convey is that we lost the game because of that choice, even though it isn’t true. Leeds was the superior team, and they ought to have won.Would that scenario have been different, of course, and would it have changed the game? Most likely, yes.” When asked how he thought the game went overall, the Norwich manager replied, “It’s a difficult one.” We certainly didn’t start off as well as we could have.

“I think after that, we actually showed some courage out there, we showed some good character in the team, some good personality, tried to get back into the game.”However, despite being ahead 1-0, we had to defend a lot and make sure we didn’t open up too much as a team, which we talked about. “I think we tried to go out and stress them and see if we can provoke some mistakes and they found that space to provoke a mistake from us instead,” the player said.