Leeds United: BBC man didn’t like what 25-year-old was doing

Ian Wright has claimed on Match of the Day 2 that Leeds United’s Raphinha didn’t have his head in the game

Leeds United slumped to a managing defeat away to Arsenal yesterday afternoon that was made even more frustrating by the fact Luke Ayling picked up a red card which means his season has now been brought to a premature end.

However, it appears that there were more problems than just Ayling getting sent off with players, especially Raphinha, seemingly not having instructions or not sticking to them as he was seen aimlessly chasing after a ball and leaving his side exposed out wide.

Wright has picked out an instance where Raphinha went to press the Arsenal defence by himself, leaving the right-hand side wildly exposed and allowed the Gunners to easily play themselves out of trouble and into the Leeds half, he said:

(35:10) “This is what I’m talking about with Raphinha, you don’t want to give them this much time and he was doing this all game like his head’s not in the game. He comes in, [they do] an easy one-two, and again Arsenal are straight into Luke Ayling who had a torrid time.”

TIF Thoughts on this Raphinha incident…

It appears that the relegation battle and pressure on Leeds could be getting too much for Raphinha if his head wasn’t in the game when it came to pressing and he very easily could have been sent off for persistently confronting the referee following Luke Ayling’s red card.

This analysis of Raphinha won’t be great for Leeds fans or Jesse Marsch who will have been looking to rely on Raphinha for the remainder of this season with him being their top scorer and chance creator as they head into a crucial three-game run to save their season.

In other news: ‘Something tells me…’ – Phil Hay now hints at huge boost for Leeds