Raphinha replacement was never going to be a tag which weighed lightly on the shoulders of the chosen one. As a South American winger with a decent scoring record on the continent, Luis Sinisterra was the anointed one at Leeds United.
As keen as the 23-year-old was to make a good first impression, the rug was pulled from under him before he even got started. Thirty-minute bursts against Brisbane Roar and Aston Villa in pre-season were rusty and hard to read, before a hamstring injury against Crystal Palace set him back even further.
Sinisterra would miss out on the opening day entirely before cameos against Southampton and Chelsea again left much to be desired. As with the opening weeks of Raphinha’s time at Leeds, it was a slow, flickering start before it really caught light.
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Raphinha began with turns from the bench against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace before a full debut against Arsenal. A winner at Everton would follow in his second start. He never looked back.
The Colombian successor is showing all the hallmarks of that next talisman off the rank. Three goals in three starts is a superb return which promises much as Jesse Marsch looks to get his winger over the final hurdle in his Leeds integration.
The goals have all shown a touch of real class too. The thunder strike against Barnsley, the steered drive against Everton and then the Paul Gascoigne flick over Rico Henry’s head at Brentford before a first-time hit into the corner.
All three strikes have been dripping in quality, but it’s only leaving the support wanting more and that’s the aforementioned final hurdle. Sinisterra needs to last longer on the field and thus impact games in longer spells for the Whites.
Asked about the winger’s limited pitch time on Saturday, Marsch said: “At half-time, I could see he was tired after a full week, but we wanted to keep him on the pitch to see if we could make one or two more plays.”
Sinisterra is yet to go beyond 63 minutes on the pitch for the Whites this season, though four matches in the space of 10 days is sure to have played some part in that. With nine days between Brentford and Nottingham Forest before another six days until Manchester United and the international break, Leeds will hope their most potent attacking threat can start seeing out full matches from here.
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