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Elliott Jackson & Chris Watson

Raphinha shows frustration at 'destructive' Pascal Struijk in Leeds United defeat at Arsenal

It was to be another frustrating trip to London for Leeds United as they were beaten by Arsenal at the weekend.

Marcelo Bielsa's men went down 4-2 to the Gunners in Sunday's Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium.

Leeds found themselves four goals down early in the second half as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang bagged a hat-trick, with Hector Bellerin also on target.

The visitors did hit back through Pascal Struijk and substitute Helder Costa - but the damage had already been done.

Leeds clearly missed England international midfielder Kalvin Phillips, who is currently sidelined due to injury.

Phillips' absence - and how it is affecting his team-mates - was highlighted in Match of the Day 2's match analysis segment.

A video clip showed Raphinha throwing up his arms in frustration after taking up a good position to receive the ball, only for Struijk to instinctively go backwards instead of picking out a forward pass.

Former Everton midfielder-turned television pundit Leon Osman said: "Kalvin Phillips is the man that dictates play, he passes forward, he's the man who you'd call a quarterback.

"In this position, you see Raphinha getting frustrated that they're moving it [backwards], and playing the backwards pass."

Osman added: "Marcelo Bielsa said in his interview after that he knew Arsenal would press but they didn’t know how to resolve it without Phillips.

"They didn’t know how to operate without him."

"Struijk was playing backwards passes, he’s a centre-back playing in that position. It was there for him to make passes but he wasn’t quite sure how to get around [Arsenal].

"That position is so important for them, so [Stuart] Dallas realises Struijk isn’t getting on the ball, so he does it, but then Struijk is in positions that stops them being able to move the ball quickly. It was very negative.

"They changed it second half, more players took responsibility, they played from back to front without using Struijk, allowing him to be behind the ball and be destructive.

"In the second half they were very good, good rotation but they couldn’t get into those positions first half.

"I thought maybe Dallas could play there, they chose with someone destructive that could stop Arsenal but it hindered them in possession."

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