Leeds United’s summer acquisitions of Rodrigo Moreno and Raphinha were “quite brilliant” bits of business.
That’s according to former Leeds defender Stephen Warnock, who lavished praise on the pair – Raphinha in particular – after Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Newcastle United.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side travelled to St James’ Park looking to end a run of three straight defeats against a woefully out of form Newcastle side. They did just that thanks to a goal in each half from Raphinha and Jack Harrison.
Leeds’ return to the Premier League in the summer saw Bielsa dip into the market and make marquee additions in the shape of Spain international Rodrigo from Valencia and Raphinha from Stade Rennais.
Both players have three goals to their name in the Premier League, with Rodrigo grabbing his first assist of the season in the north east, teeing up Raphinha to curl home the opener.
“You need quality, you need that quality on the ball and what they’ve done is brought in Rodrigo and they’ve brought in Raphinha – two quite brilliant players,” Warnock told Match of the Day.
“What they do is – yes, they get forward in numbers – but they also have this quality, awareness of what’s going on around them, ability to find other players. And what you also have is strength in running, athleticism.
“Look at the run from Raphinha to get into the box (for his goal). He’s so clever, the awareness, he puts the breaks on, pulls off and knows that he’s taken his defender in and bought himself a little bit of room.
“We talk about Leeds’ identity, it’s forward runners. But you’ve got to be able to pick passes – Rodrigo, great pass into Raphinha and they’re unfortunate (when Dallas handles for a disallowed goal).”
Miguel Almiron restored parity for Newcastle 12 minutes after half-time, but just four minutes later Leeds were back in front as Raphinha clipped a lovely ball across to Harrison, whose peach of a half-volley with his left foot curled into the far corner. It was the Brazilian’s third assist of the season.
“This is the quality again from Raphinha,” Warnock said of the second goal.
“It’s a brilliant run from Klich, because what Klich does is he takes (Isaac) Hayden into a position he doesn’t want to go, he’s not comfortable being in that right-back position.
“Harrison reads the situation perfectly – what a pass (from Raphinha), it’s lovely and it’s a great finish from Jack Harrison. That just shows what they’ve brought into the club this summer.”
