Phil Hay: Marcelo Bielsa preparing for Raphinha change at Leeds
Marcelo Bielsa is plotting the positional change of Leeds United winger Raphinha to play more centrally this season in the Premier League.
After the arrival of Daniel James on deadline day, the Whites not have three top-class wingers adding Jack Harrison to the equation.
Phil Hay has suggested that El Loco is now thinking of converting Raphinha into a number 10, but admitted he may take months before that is used.
Speaking on the Phil Hay Podcast on Friday, the journalist shared the major change that could take place.
“We’ll wait to see if there’s any effort to convert someone like Raphinha into a 10,” he said.
“From what I can gather, that is on Bielsa’s mind, but I think it would take a heck of a lot of coaching and it would be a longer-term process.
“Raphinha doesn’t instantly look like a Bielsa in that two behind Patrick Bamford.”
Big move.
It is no secret that Bielsa is a huge fan of James, and has been for nearly three years now after that entire drama.
With that being said, it appears highly unlikely that the Welsh international will have been brought in to sit on the bench at Elland Road.
The number 10 role at Leeds is much different to many others, and could be classed as more of an eight, with defensive duties just as important as going forward.
Could that harness Raphinha? We hope not.
Having a three behind Patrick Bamford that can interchange and swap for an entire 90 minutes every single week could become a real weapon, though.
We have never had reason to question Bielsa, and hopefully, this works out as well as it can do moving forward – bring it on.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites are ‘likely’ to make a major sale in near future – reliable journalist