Leeds United news: Pundit ‘fears the worst’ amid Man United plan – ‘let’s nail Raphinha’
Alex McLeish has suggested Manchester United could target Raphinha in Sunday’s visit to Leeds United.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the former Scotland manager claimed the Red Devils would “smell blood” ahead of their trip to Elland Road.
Leeds head into Sunday’s game (20 February) off the back of a 3-0 defeat to Everton.
Raphinha was taken off at halftime against the Toffees in what was a tactical decision from Marcelo Bielsa.
McLeish admitted the 25-year-old is clearly lacking in confidence.
He admitted he “fears the worst” for Leeds against a hungry Manchester United side.
Discussing Leeds’ upcoming fixtures, McLeish told Football Insider’s Russell Edge: “Given the kind of form we saw last year, they ended up surprising you.
“But these other teams, Man United for instance, they have been getting all sorts of criticism. You would expect Manchester United’s players to have some kind of reaction to that.
“There’s a certain pride amongst footballers that they don’t like getting slaughtered in the press. Man United players have been getting that very frequently in the past couple of months since they started sliding a little bit.
“That’s why I would fear the worst for Leeds. These teams will react to the criticism that they have had. It’s difficult to say Leeds will react because they’ve got too many good players missing.
“When the opposition smell blood, they’ll say: ‘Listen, this team are not playing well. Let’s nail Raphinha. Let’s get really close to him. Don’t let him do what he can do.’
“Sometimes he can rise above that when he’s on form and he’s confident.
“But you can see a drain of confidence.”
Raphinha has contributed just one assist in Leeds’ last five league games.
His last goal came against Arsenal in December’s 4-1 defeat.
In other news, pundit claims Marcelo Bielsa dealing with “crisis” at Leeds United in “virus” verdict.