Leeds United given Raphinha 'fear' warning about Manchester United fixture

Raphinha has been warned that under-fire Manchester United players might 'target' him at Elland Road.

Having started this season in blistering form, the Leeds United sensation has only scored once in his last seven, but still has eight Premier League goals to his name in all this campaign.

Amid long-standing injuries to other important players — including English pair Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford — even greater pressure has been put on the Brazilian at Leeds and he seemingly shouldered that responsibility well early on.

However, in the midst of his goalscoring drought, the 25-year-old was hauled off at half-time during the 3-0 defeat against Everton and is out of sorts going into the United game.

Speaking to Football Insider about United, ex-Rangers and Scotland manager Alex McLeish said: "They have been getting all sorts of criticism. You would expect Manchester United 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. United have been getting that very frequently in the past couple of months since they started sliding a little bit.

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"That's why I fear the worst for Leeds. These teams react to criticism that they've had.

"It's difficult to say Leeds will react because they've got too many good players missing.

"When the opposition smell blood, they will 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."

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