It couldn’t have been easy Raphinha see how, overnight, it comes from will be favorite to relieve Ousmane Dembélé FC Barcelona’s gala eleven will feel relegated to the background again after his dismissal on the opening day of the League. Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal took advantage of their absence for two games to demand more prominence and, when he was available again in the fourth game of the calendar, against Osasuna, the Brazilian played just 10 minutes. After the break, the winger should ‘win’ again with Xavi Hernández.
Raphinha’s reaction to this situation no defect. At least on the playground. He started two of Barça’s four matches, he scored two goals, he distributed two assists and, in the contexts where he had to turn the scoreboard, he discovered a very interesting alternative to attacking the frightened defensive line, five defenders. In the last duels, the Brazilian occupied the interior areas and teamed up with another right winger in ‘green’, Lamine Yamal. He succeeded in creating attacking opportunities and this allowed him to recover the lost honors.
The ’11’ culé refutes the cliché that claims that trust is gained little by little, but that when it is lost it is very difficult to regain it. In record time, with his rebellious nature and his absolute desire to succeed at the Camp Nou, he recalled that He has not held the heavyweight category in the squad, but he is an important asset.. The internal competition will be the greatest and Xavi has already warned that no one is uncontested. Raphinha, however, is afraid of ghosts and, moreover, has shown previously unknown qualities to be part of the midfield square if the Egarense coach deems it appropriate.
Determinant
There are plenty of numbers from ‘Opta’ which also highlight Raphinha’s most distinctive side in the opposite area. First of all, this is it the player in Europe’s five major leagues who has scored and assisted the most times in a single match so far in 2023 among all competitions (with six, he surpasses Madrid player Vinicius, who has achieved it five times). On the other hand, in Palma it became the second Barça footballer to reach double digits of the many that mark this calendar year (10). Only the ‘killer’ Robert Lewandowski (21) surpassed him. Finally, the Brazilian is the player of LaLiga who scored the most goals from outside the area in the same time frame (4).
The point saved by the Catalan team in Son Moix cannot be understood without the character of Raphinha, who rebelled against Mallorca’s superiority in a key moment of the game. His figures in Palma are really nice. He scored one goal and assisted the other, he did three successful dribbles intervened 80 times, made 49 passes with 80% success, made three key passes, created a clear scoring chance and missed another, won eight duels and drew four fouls. On the negative side, the losses. He always takes risks in his decisions and execution and is done 24 wasted possessions.
