Leeds United’s summer transfer expenditure this year has topped £100million. The signings of Illan Meslier and Hélder Costa on permanent deals contributed £20m to that figure but nonetheless, Leeds have spent big on new players.
Two of those additions, Rodrigo and Raphinha, have Brazilian heritage. Both were born in South American, although the former plays for Spain’s national team.
The latter is yet to make his Whites ebut but could be in line for his first appearance at home to Wolves on Monday evening, having spent the international break getting acquainted with the surroundings at Thorp Arch.
Rodrigo, on the other hand, has already taken to the field in a Whites’ shirt, even scoring his first goal, against Manchester City. The Spaniard has been used in conjunction with Patrick Bamford, who many supporters and pundits believed would be replaced in the starting XI by the 29-year-old Spain international.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the pair could start together without Marcelo Bielsa diverting from his 4-1-4-1 formation too strongly. Rodrigo has predominantly been used as a centre-forward throughout his career, but he’s spent plenty of time as a shadow striker behind a main forward.
In Leeds’ fluid formation, Rodrigo can perform such a function as a marauding member of the midfield line, which looks more of a 4-1-3-1-1 in practice. Instructions to push the wide players on to support Bamford in attack while restricting the movement of his central players would create a 4-1-2-3 formation – something which could be trialled throughout this season.
According to Transfermarkt, Rodrigo has played as a supporting striker or attacking midfielder 37 times in his club career, scoring 14 goals.
Most of these appearances came at Benfica, where he played prior to his move to Valencia. However, in recent seasons with the Spanish club, it is interesting to note that he reprised his role in that position on a number of occasions.
Last season, Rodrigo played as the foil to targetman Maxi Gómez at Valencia, registering seven assists and scoring four times in just shy of 2,000 league minutes. It meant he was involved in a La Liga goal once every other game, a reasonable rate of return for a side who struggled throughout.
The same can be said of the previous season when Rodrigo started alongside Santi Mina, more of a pressing forward and penalty-box attacker. Rodrigo’s creative metrics trumped both his strike partners’ over his last two seasons at Mestalla.
In conventional footballing understanding, the attacking midfielder creates chances and the striker finishes them. Abiding by such binary descriptions, Rodrigo has almost always been more of an attacking midfielder than a centre-forward.
Raphinha shares some parallels with Rodrigo, particularly in the sense that he too contributes plenty of attacking output. More often than not a right-winger, Raphinha has also featured on the left-hand side owing to his left-footedness and tendency to drive at opposition defenders.
Nevertheless, Raphinha has always had a habit of coming inside and picking up unoccupied pockets in the half-space area between the wing and the central channel. From there, he is capable of interchanging with No.10s and conventional strikers to get beyond the defensive line and into the penalty area.
Last season he was trialled as a shadow striker with Stade Rennais – albeit with little success – but it is his potency from such areas to which Raphinha owes his fine goalscoring form in Europe.
Five of Raphinha’s six Ligue 1 goals during his time at Rennes were scored in central areas inside the penalty area. His ability to seek out shooting opportunities inside the box despite starting from the right flank could be a key competent in Leeds’ attacking arsenal.
