Raphinha keeps Leeds afloat. The straight left-back is asking for a transfer, will Klopp buy him?

Leeds United are not sailing as smoothly as expected this Premier League season. It has been kept above the relegation zone mainly by the performances of one man, Brazilian winger Raphinha. With a league record of 8+2, he is asking for a step up.

Raphinha came to Leeds at the start of the 2020/21 season. Bielsa’s management sent over £16 million to Rennes for him, a relatively high sum for a newcomer, but in hindsight it seems like perhaps the best deal in the club’s history.

Raphinha went from the Portuguese league to the Premier League via Ligue 1 in just one year. Starting the 2019/20 season at Sporting, he has shone in French stadiums since mid-September, scoring nine goals and assisting five times through all competitions.

He has already donned the Leeds jersey in the autumn of 2020. He scored his first league goal in the ninth round, while he was still at Rennes for the first four rounds. But since the match against Everton (1: 0) he has been a key figure for The Whites.

He scored six goals and added nine assists in twenty-five rounds. Although he missed a third of the games, he was the sixth best assistant in the Premier League. He scored three goals in the last four rounds and kept Leeds’ hopes of seventh place and the Conference Europa League alive until the last game of the season.

Although it didn’t work out in the end, Leeds fans were excited about the season. Not to be, when their last season’s League Two squad finished ninth in the table, just three points off seventh-placed Tottenham.

The second season for newcomers to the Premier League tends to be the toughest. Huddersfield or Sheffield know about it, both clubs played very well after promotion and easily saved themselves, in the second one it was a total fiasco on their part and they were relegated from the last place.

Leeds too have started very badly this season, with three points from three draws in the opening six rounds, and if it wasn’t for three goals from Raphinha they would have had just one point. The whole team played poorly, only the individual performances of the Brazilian midfielder kept The Whites above the relegation zone.

Raphinha’s form at the start of the season is also illustrated by the fact that despite Leeds having only six points after seven rounds of the league, the left-footed winger was given a first call-up to the senior Brazil national team. He spiced up his dream of starting in the yellow and green jersey with two assists against Venezuela.

The national invitation has obviously encouraged him, as he has scored five times and assisted two goals in eleven rounds since the national team meeting in October. He has contributed greatly to Leeds currently having a nine-point cushion in the relegation zone.

Raphinhu has been tracking Liverpool since the summer. Alongside him, Jürgen Klopp also covets Jarrod Bowen, who is also a right winger with a strong left foot and very good kicking technique. The Reds management is looking for a winger to rotate and having a trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané, Raphinha would be a big upgrade.

What would Raphinha help Liverpool the most, or what can he offer? A blistering shot from distance, an uncannily accurate ground shot, no dribbling or key passes lost among the African wingers.

The transfer fee is estimated at £50m, but if Liverpool don’t make a move for him even in the summer, it’s quite likely another club will.

Source: Transfermarket