Pundit and former player Adrian Clarke has recently been gushing about Leeds United winger Raphinha.
Clarke was a guest on the latest episode of the Totally Football Show podcast and the panel talked about multiple issues in the Premier League game week. Clarke talked in length about Wolves’ win over Leeds and this led to the pundit talking about Leeds’ performance. He gave his opinions about the performance of Raphinha and described him to be a great signing for Marcelo Bielsa’s men.
Leeds signed Raphinha from Rennes in the summer of 2020 for a fee of £16.72 million. In his only season in Ligue 1, the Brazilian impressed by scoring five league goals and picking up three assists for the French side in 22 appearances. He had done well for Sporting Lisbon in the past too (as per Transfermarkt).
Is Raphinha Leeds' most important player?
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While Raphinha didn’t score against Wolves, he has four goals in the season and Clarke has been left impressed by the winger and his abilities.
He said (55:11): “I’ll tell you who the other one that I really liked in this game is Raphinha. He looks mega at the moment, that left foot of his is dreamy really. He really should have pulled a couple of assists out of the bag in this game. I just think a right side are cutting in on his left, he is right up there.
“Obviously Riyad Mahrez is probably the pinnacle of that genre of winger but Raphinha has a lot of potential. I think that was a great signing.”
TIF Thoughts on Raphinha…
While Patrick Bamford has been Leeds’ highest-rated player in the season, Raphinha has picked up a rating of 7.10 in the campaign. As a result, he has been the Whites’ second-highest rated player (as per Whoscored).
The Brazilian has come up with 4.26 shot creation actions for Leeds this season and that is the ninth-best tally in the whole of the division. This shows that he’s one of the best creative players in the league and in his team and it is easy to see why Clarke is so appreciate of his talents.