Gaetano Berardi can count himself unfortunate to be the Leeds United player having the finger pointed at him following Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Millwall.

Leeds headed to the Den looking for their first win on Millwall soil since 2012, and given the gulf in class between the two sides, there was every chance Marcelo Bielsa’s men could deliver in tough surroundings.

However, that wasn’t to be the case. Berardi was dismissed on 14 minutes after fouling Tom Bradshaw into the penalty area, with that controversial decision swinging the game in favour of the Lions.

Jed Wallace would convert the penalty, with Bradshaw doubling the lead shortly before half-time.

Ezgjan Alioski would pull a goal back for Leeds early in the second-half, but an equaliser would frustratingly evade the Whites.

Whatever you thought of the decision to dismiss Berardi and award Millwall a key penalty, it proved to cost Leeds any chance they had of taking three points away from the Den.

With that in mind, we crunch Berardi’s numbers from the game…

As our graphic shows, Berardi managed only 13 minutes of the game before he was controversially dismissed for a ‘tangle’ with Bradshaw.

The 31-year-old was then shown a straight red-card for his first foul of the game, with James Linington ignoring the covering Kalvin Phillips and handing Berardi his eighth dismissal in six seasons as a Leeds player.

Recalled to the starting XI for the first time since late August, Berardi was off before he could really settle into the game, although his other numbers had been encouraging and suggested he would have a positive impact on the game.

Despite two losses in his own half, Berardi had an 80% duel success in the early stages of the contest, as well as a 75% passing accuracy – a trademark of any defender playing under Bielsa.

Nevertheless, all that work was undone by an unfortunate clash within the opening 15 minutes of the game.

Berardi and Leeds – who will appeal the sending off - will be so frustrated with how things played out because of that, with the Swiss defender unfortunate to be shouldering part of the blame for another defeat to Millwall.

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