The average time the ball has been in play across Premier League games this season has fallen to a 10-year low of 55 minutes.

Some clubs have found ways to avoid the referee’s punishment for time-wasting tactics – much to the frustration of their opponents.

Kinnear also revealed discussions with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited and the Premier League about the recent implementation of VAR and hopes those talks will lead to the system being used more effectively.

“The focus [against Aston Villa] will be on bouncing back from an error-strewn performance at Brentford that ultimately meant, while the vagaries of VAR were hugely frustrating, those vagaries were not decisive,” he wrote in Leeds United’s matchday programme for Sunday’s clash with Aston Villa.

“Attempting to influence the process or quality of decision making in the heat of the match is virtually futile, but there has been much more progressive subsequent dialogue with the PGMOL and the Premier League subsequently, with all clubs hoping that such a calamitous weekend of VAR decisions will act as a catalyst for a meaningful improvement.

“Similarly, the fact that “ball in play time” has reached a decade-low average of 55 minutes (with a remarkable spread of over 20 minutes between the highest and the lowest fixtures) will hopefully create an impetus to address the systematic “game management” that appears to be both increasingly pervasive and troublingly tolerated while antithetical to everything that has made Premier League football loved across the globe.”

Leeds take on Aston Villa at 4.30pm on Sunday. It will be their first game since travelling to Brentford on September 4. The Whites’ two fixtures following the defeat were postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Leeds United chief calls on Premier League to address 'systematic game management' with ball-in-play time reaching a decade low