Leeds beginning to reap rewards for taking risk on Raphinha
Upon their Premier League return, Leeds pulled out all the stops to assemble a squad capable of consolidating their spot in England's top tier. Well, perhaps not quite all the stops, but they sure came close to doing so. The Whites were unwilling to meet Udinese's £35m asking price for Rodrigo De Paul, even with the Argentine keen to link up with compatriot Marcelo Bielsa at Elland Road.
In came Rodrigo Moreno, Diego Llorente and Robin Koch, while Helder Costa and Illan Meslier saw their loan moves from Wolves and Lorient, respectively, made permanent. Jack Harrison, meanwhile, returned to the club from Manchester City for the third season running. However, the most exciting new arrival came late on in deadline day.
De Paul was the main target in Leeds' bid to improve their attacking options, but in the end it was Raphinha who made the move to Yorkshire. Raphinha never played a full season in France, but did enough during his time with Rennes to convince Leeds to part with around £17m to bring to Brazilian to Elland Road. After yet another superb showing, this time in Leeds' 3-0 win over Southampton on Tuesday night, that £17m is looking a steal.
Having initially struggled to break into the first team, with Costa starting the campaign as Bielsa's preferred right wing option, in part to allow the summer arrival the chance to settle, Raphinha has quickly become one of the first names on Bielsa's team sheet. There was some inconsistency to his initial outings, though that was to be expected from a player operating in a new team in a new league.
Since the early weeks of his Leeds career, however, Raphinha has really taken his game to the next level, so much so that he is already being linked with a move away from Leeds, with Liverpool supposedly keeping tabs on the Brazilian. Of course, it would take a gargantuan offer for Leeds to even consider cashing in on the winger, but it speaks volumes of his good form.
After his goalscoring performance against Saints in midweek, Raphinha now has a WhoScored rating of 7.16, that level with top scorer Patrick Bamford; no Leeds player has better. The WhoScored Premier League form rankings has him fourth behind Raheem Sterling, Bruno Fernandes and Ilkay Gundogan, with Raphinha's four best rated top-flight performances coming since the turn of the year.
The winger is a player who would, in normal circumstances, get bums off seats with his exciting approach to attacking. Indeed, only Luke Ayling (34) has completed more dribbles than Raphinha (32) of all Leeds players this season, though that isn't a surprise given the former has played all but 20 minutes of the Premier League campaign compared to the latter's 1531 of a possible 2250.
It's a similar story for chances created, a metric led by Harrison (42) of all Leeds players, with Raphinha (41) in second. What's more, Raphinha has created eight clear-cut goalscoring opportunities, that more than any other Leeds player and the sixth most in the Premier League this season, a fine feat for a player in his debut season in a new league. It's seen the winger return five assists for Leeds in 2020/21, the same he managed during his time with Rennes and one off his best in a league campaign, when he registered six assists for Vitoria de Guimaraes back in 2016/17.
Given the chances created for teammates, he should, in theory at least, have more than his five current league assists, but crucially still is that if he isn't creating for those around him, Raphinha is doing his best to tuck away the opportunities presented to him. Only Bamford (13) and Harrison (6) have scored more league goals than Raphinha (5) of all Leeds players in the Premier League this season, three of which have come in 2021.
"He’s a player who unbalances (the opposition) by himself, he’s very ambitious, very competitive," Bielsa said of Raphinha following the win over Southampton and, in describing the 24-year-old as a player who "unbalances" opponents, the Leeds boss has explained the winger perfectly. This is what makes Raphinha such an asset for the Whites. He favours to start on the right and utilise a style of play of 'likes to cut inside' but even in playing from the left, he can use his wicked left foot to wreak havoc in the opposition box.
On the back of his inconsistent start to life in Yorkshire, Raphinha is really beginning to come into his own in a Leeds shirt and his stock has soared as a result, with rumoured interest in his services testament to his rapid adaptation to Premier League football with the Whites beneficiaries of taking a gamble on the Brazilian. It's a £17m risk, however, that is beginning to reap the rewards with his superb display in midweek helping Leeds move back into the top half of the Premier League table.
