Farke could unearth the new Raphinha in 5 ft 7 Elland Road ‘nightmare’

The talented winger has enjoyed a strong start to the current Championship season.

Leeds United endured a disappointing 2022/23 campaign as they were relegated from the Premier League and dropped back down to the Championship.

The Whites enjoyed three seasons in the top-flight after their promotion from the second tier under Marcelo Bielsa at the end of the 2019/20 term.

They were unable to achieve safety in the third campaign and they lacked a consistent creative threat at the top end of the pitch throughout the year after Brazilian winger Raphinha moved on to sign for Barcelona.

The Spanish giants swooped in to sign the talented ace for a reported fee of £55m in the summer of 2022 and the club are yet to fully unearth their true replacement for him, just over a year later.

However, current head coach Daniel Farke has a player within his ranks who has the potential to develop into a Raphinha-like figure at Elland Road – Daniel James.

Whilst the Wales international was on loan with Fulham, Jack Harrison ended the 2022/23 campaign with the most assists for Leeds as he racked up seven in the Premier League.

The former Manchester City prospect provided 1.5 key passes per game for the Whites and no other player within the squad made more than 1.3 per outing.

This came after Raphinha had produced ten ‘big chances’ created and 1.9 key passes per match throughout the 2021/22 Premier League season.

The Brazil international also showcased his outstanding creativity during his debut year in English football. He assisted nine goals and created 12 ‘big chances’ for his teammates to go along with 2.1 key passes per game across 26 top-flight starts.

These statistics show that Leeds missed his creative quality last season as they were relegated down to the Championship without a player who could open up the opposition’s defence as regularly as Raphinha was able to for the club.

So far this term, James has created 13 chances for his teammates in six Championship appearances, with one of his outings coming as a substitute.

No Leeds player has managed more than his 2.2 key passes per game this season for Farke’s side and he has two more assists (four) than any of his teammates.

The English-born whiz, who scored nine goals in 74 outings for Manchester United in all competitions, did also create five ‘big chances’ and assist four goals in 31 Premier League starts during his first season with Leeds in the 2021/22 campaign.

These statistics suggest that James has been able to take his game up a notch at a lower level in the Championship, as he found it too difficult to deliver quality on a consistent basis in the top-flight for the Whites.

However, there is still plenty of time left for the Welsh gem, at the age of 25, to develop and improve to get to a point where he can deliver Raphinha-like levels of creativity in the future.

Farke, who has helped to improve the likes of Emiliano Buendia, James Maddison, and Todd Cantwell throughout his coaching career to date, could work with James to help him take the next step in his career.

Along with his assists, the former Red Devils speedster has averaged an outstanding Sofascore rating of 7.42 across his six Championship appearances so far.

He has created five ‘big chances’ for his teammates and only Crysencio Summerville (7.68) has averaged a higher Sofascore rating than the 25-year-old ace.

This shows that James has emerged as one of Farke’s top performers in the division so far this season and is starting to prove his worth, two years on from his £25m move to Elland Road from Manchester United.

His excellent creativity is not a flash in the pan, either, as the speedy wizard amassed ten assists in 39 appearances for Swansea during his time in Wales.

He produced four goals and nine assists in 33 outings throughout the 2018/19 Championship campaign with the Swans as he showcased his ability to split open the opposition’s defence with regularity.

In fact, James ranked within the top 9% of his positional peers in the second tier for shot-creating actions (4.61) per 90 and the top 16% for assists (0.25) per 90, as per FBref.

The 5 foot 7 dynamo, who pundit Micah Richards once described as a “nightmare”, also displayed his exceptional ability to carry the ball up the pitch for Swansea as he placed within the top 2% of players in his position for progressive carries (6.55) per 90.

This was also a strength of Raphinha’s as the Brazilian hotshot ranked within the top 5% of his positional peers in the Premier League for progressive carries (3.89) per 90 during the 2020/21 campaign.

Both players excel at being able to take the ball past players to progress the team forward from deep positions. This allows the side to thrive in transition as they do not have to solely rely on inch-perfect passes to move into dangerous areas.

Whilst James is already showcasing Raphinha-like chance creation numbers from a wide position, it is now down to the 25-year-old gem to add a goalscoring threat to his game over the coming months.

The Barcelona wizard scored 17 Premier League goals across his two seasons in Yorkshire and that included 11 during his final campaign with the club.

Whereas, the current Leeds speedster, who was once hailed as “electric” by international teammate Joe Allen, has never scored more than four league goals in a single season throughout his senior career to date.

However, Buendia had never scored more than six league goals in a season before his move to Norwich to work with Farke and went on to score eight in his first Championship season before an impressive return of 15 goals from out wide in his second campaign at that level under the German head coach.

This suggests that the Leeds tactician has the coaching chops to improve the goalscoring output of his wingers and if he can do that with James then he could unearth the club’s replacement for Raphinha, as the creativity is already there from the gem.