Former Aston Villa defender Alan Hutton believes that Leeds United have become too reliant on Raphinha after his early substitution at Everton.
The 25-year-old was replaced at half-time by Tyler Roberts as the Whites suffered a 3-0 defeat at Goodison Park, with Seamus Coleman, Michael Keane and Richarlison all finding the net.
Daniel James moved out to the right-wing but it made little difference to the scoreline as Marcelo Bielsa confirmed that the decision was tactical, rather than an injury concern.
The result leaves Leeds in 16th in the Premier League table, just six points above the relegation zone heading into the back end of the season.
However, Raphinha has been one of the Whites' best players this campaign, chipping in with eight goals and two assists in 21 appearances and his form has seen him linked with Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
And Hutton, who also played for Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur, has claimed that the Whites are relying on Raphinha as much as Villa did with Jack Grealish.
Hutton told Football Insider: "At half-time, Bielsa brought off the likes of Raphinha and Klich and I didn’t understand why.
"With regards to Raphinha, even though he was up against Gordon and it was difficult to get past him, I didn’t understand what Bielsa was trying to get out of it.
"Leeds never really had an answer, they didn’t really know how they were going about it with ideas they had moving forward. That was the scary thing.
"Everything kind of relies heavily on Raphinha’s shoulders if you want to go and produce. It’s like a couple of seasons ago with Jack Grealish at Villa, everything went through him. Raphinha’s kind of the same.
"He plays a lot of games. When fit, he always starts. He has been away for the internationals. With everything that everybody’s been through over the last couple of years, you’re going to get spells where you’re going to be tired.
"There’s got to be other players within the team to step up and fill that void and areas. I see what they tried to do, putting Dan James out on the wing with his pace. Try and cause different sorts of problems.
"I think for Raphinha it was just one of those days where everything he was trying wasn’t quite coming off. Unfortunately, Bielsa subbed him off at half-time.
"I still felt he had a lot to give. If he’d had stayed on the pitch, I still believe he could have created something."
