Leeds United’s former player Raphinha has come under big criticism from the BBC pundit Martin Keown following his display for Brazil on Thursday night.
Keown questioned what the 25-year-old actually achieved during his time in Yorkshire which has seen YouTube presenter Ger Lynch slam the former Arsenal man’s lack of research.
“Was Raphinha really all that good at Leeds?” Keown said during his commentary on Brazil’s 2-0 victory over Serbia in their group stage opener.
Raphinha played 87 minutes in the victory, however, it was a fairly underwhelming display by his usual high standards with just 51 touches of the ball to his name before being substituted off (via SofaScore).
These comments clearly left a lot at Leeds frustrated with Lynch slamming the BBC pundit and advised him to delve deeper into his research ahead of his next game in the gantry:
(8:00) “So let’s just talk about that. Leeds’ top goal scorer last year scored 17 goals and 67 appearances from the wing, not from a striking position from an out wide position. Pretty much retired Gary Cahill with one of the best nutmegs you’ve ever seen a football match and was huge in Leeds’ survival.”
“Martin Keown, did he do anything at Leeds? Yes, he helped keep Leeds in the Premier Division. So do some homework on BBC if you’re gonna actually talk about people.”
TIF Thoughts on Lynch’s comments…
We cannot deny that we were slightly disappointed with Raphinha’s performance on Thursday which saw him lose possession on 15 occasions (via SofaScore).
Did Leeds say up because of Raphinha?
Yes
No
However, to question whether Raphinha actually done anything at Leeds feels incredibly naive considering he returned the same number of goals as Arsenal’s Bakayo Saka in the Premier League.
After all, it was the Brazilian’s goal in the final game of last season which helped to secure Leeds their Premier League status.
We would imagine Keown was frustrated that Gabriel Martinelli was left on the bench, but maybe he should remember that it was Arsenal who were wanting to sign Raphinha during the summer transfer window.