Leeds journalist claims reporters at ER cannot believe one Bielsa player’s ability

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It’s no secret that Leeds United have an absolute star in the form of Raphinha.

Since the start of last season, the Brazilian winger has netted 13 Premier League goals for the Elland Road club.

This time around, with Patrick Bamford absent, Raphinha has confirmed himself as Leeds’ biggest and best player by a million miles, netting five goals in 10 outings.

Because so much of last season was played without fans inside stadia, there are a lot of football reporters and journalists who haven’t seen the former Rennes man in the flesh.

And Phil Hay, who exclusively covers Leeds for The Athletic, has revealed on his podcast that colleagues in the industry cannot believe how good the former Rennes star really is.

He said: “You always get a good hint of this from other journalists you’re sat with and obviously I have a colleague who comes to every game so it was Rob Tanner who was doing Leicester on Sunday.

“All of them sit and say to me – because not many of them have had a chance to see him in the flesh – he looks absolutely incredible. He looks so good.”

Dog fight

You need only consider the fact that Leeds are 15th in the Premier League table and three points above the drop zone to realise how important he is.

Without Raphinha, Leeds are in a relegation dog fight this season and even with him, they could go down.

You would hope Marcelo Bielsa’s side improve quite a lot once Patrick Bamford is fit again.

But for now, Raphinha is the only thing standing between the Whites and a very major relegation battle.