MOT View: 0.06xG – Leeds forward thoroughly underwhelmed during loss to West Ham
Raphinha failed to build on his recent excellent performances as he underwhelmed when Leeds United lost to West Ham on Friday.
After taking the lead through a Mateusz Klich penalty early in the first half, goals from Tomas Soucek and Angelo Ogbonna left Leeds with nothing after 90 minutes.
It was the second time in two games that Leeds have lost after taking the lead and Raphinha struggled to make inroads against the Hammers defence.
According to Wyscout, Raphinha failed to get any of his shots on target and performed below his own standards in front of goal.
The 23-year-old registered an expected goals rate (xG) of 0.06 which is well below his average xG rate this season of 0.22xG per game.
He never tested Lukasz Fabianski and Marcelo Bielsa will have wanted more from his summer signing.
Raphinha’s crossing also let him down as only 33% of his crosses found a teammate which simply isn’t good enough for a Premier League attacker.
With Raphinha struggling with his attacking you might expect that he made up for it with his defending but this sadly isn’t the case.
According to Wyscout, he only won 50% of his offensive duels against the Hammers as he only won the ball back half of the time he attempted to win it back for his side.
He also won none of his three aerial duels and none of his loose ball duels which shows that he isn’t contributing enough to the defence, even though he is a winger.
Marcelo Bielsa demands so much from his players and there is little doubt that he will be concerned that Raphinha failed to contribute in either an offensive or defensive manner on Friday night.
Overall, only 47% of Raphinha’s attempted actions against West Ham were successful which means that he was more often than not giving the ball away or losing possession.
After strong performances in recent weeks, we hope that this is just a blip for Raphinha and he can get back to his previous form against Newcastle in midweek.
In other Leeds United news, Andy Hinchcliffe blasted this “incredibly poor” player against West Ham.