Leeds United were beaten 3-0 by Liverpool on Sunday, but it could have been very different had Rodrigo buried a great chance early on.
The Whites started brightly and had a great opening inside the first five minutes at Elland Road.
Kalvin Phillips hit a trademark ping across the pitch, right into Raphinha’s stride.
He ran at Andrew Robertson before laying the ball off to Rodrigo inside the box. Fabinho was trailing behind and both Liverpool centre backs were deep, so Rodrigo had what felt like an age to get a shot away.
In the end, he fired an effort straight at Alisson, who saved comfortably.
Had Rodrigo gone either side, Leeds surely would have taken an early lead and given a vastly different complexion to the game.
As it was, Rodrigo didn’t score and Liverpool ended up coasting to a 3-0 win. Mohamed Salah, Fabinho and Sadio Mane all got themselves on the scoresheet.
Rodrigo was hooked at half time for Tyler Roberts. In truth, Leeds haven’t quite managed to get the best out of the Spaniard, who earns £100k-a-week at Elland Road.
That’s fairly big money for Leeds, and pundit Gary Neville wasn’t too impressed with his early effort.
Neville’s verdict on Rodrigo’s chance for Leeds
Neville told Sky Sports (12/09, 4:35pm) that Rodrigo got it wrong because he went for power instead of precision.
Neville couldn’t understand Rodrigo’s decision, believing that he would have scored if he curled the ball towards the far corner instead of just hammering it at Alisson.
“Rodrigo gets this one wrong,” said Neville. “It’s a brilliant take on this right hand side by Raphinha. Rodrigo is in acres of space, Fabinho can’t get back, he goes for power – he has to side-foot it towards that far corner and go for the accuracy. For some reason, he goes to put his laces through it,” he added.
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