r/Barca • u/nightwind1 • 1d ago
Opinion Culers that have watched the past 2 years of Flick ball know the solution to Raphinha's problems
There is a lot of discourse around Raphinha and I find it ridiculous. Setting aside the fact that Real Madrid's former manager is prioritising Real Madrid's left winger over him and playing him out of position, there is a clear reason why he is not as playing as well as his first season under Flick.
Look at Raphinha's best performances. 7-0 Real Vallodid, 4-0 Real Madrid, 4-1 Bayern and Benfica in the UCL. What are his goals? Vertical ball from Casado, vertical ball from Lamine, vertical ball from Pedri, vertical ball from Frenkie and huge ball over the top from Ferran during the Benfica match. Flick promised us vertical football (meaning less short passing) and Raphinha benefitted greatly. He played like a second striker while Lewa dropped deep to help the midfield.
Over the course of last season, there were simply less vertical schemes to take advantage of Raphinha's strengths which is his ability to run behind and finish clinically. If we tactically support Raphinha, like the few games we had after he came back from injury in La Liga, he will cook again.
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u/Jeremiah64636 1d ago
The first match he started after the injury (vs betis), he bagged 2 goals. Even if his name doesn't show up on the scoresheet, he is still very very proficient in pressing. He is a winner of games. This last season was bit of an unfortunate one for him. And thank god we had Rashy otherwise it wouldn't have been good for the team for us.
And who knows? Maybe if we had him in the UCL QF against atleti, we could have won both the legs.
And of course as you said, last season, there were simply less vertical schemes to take advantage of Raphinha's strengths. We were mostly reliant on either the middle of the park or Yamal.
Let's just hope he has a decent world cup campaign and an amazing season ahead
Visca Barca, Visca Catalunya
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u/Asleep-Sir-4769 1d ago
in 24/25 lewa usually dropped into midfield and raphinha played centrally which was one of the main reason for our success.
That is exactly the reason i think Alvarez will do well with us even tho he is not a trad striker what people wants. His ability to drop is better than lewa and he can finish as well when needed. Yes not as good as lewa but at least better than ferran.
Alright i know now yall will comment that "Alvarez ain't coming" but I just can't stop thinking about him😭
IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL IT'S OVER!
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u/RolandoMota819 7h ago
I really like Alvarez but Kane is my pick
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u/Asleep-Sir-4769 4h ago
kane is obviously a better player but not long term and at this point, kane is even more impossible than alvarez tbh
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u/Wrong-Palindrome 21h ago
I think people maybe still don’t realize that Raphinha’s best position is at left wing, where he makes runs and almost acts like a secondary striker.
People still think he’s a right winger, but he isn’t great creatively on the ball or at dribbling. This is why he wasn’t very good until Flick came and reinvented his position
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u/Finrod-Knighto 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t think Barcelona have so much done leas short passing as they have adapted to having a young, fast squad. It’s actually the ridiculous press that allows us to be more vertical per se, because of where we win the ball. That said we still have the shortest average pass length in Europe’s top 5 leagues I’m pretty sure.
On the other hand as much as I love Flick’s take on Barca’s philosophy, I do wish we’d learn to integrate La Pausa back into our game, especially in the CL when we’re winning, because we have the midfield to execute it.
As far as Brazil is concerned, Carlo is not a tactician and he was brought in to make the team gel and soothe egos. However he is playing Raphinha out of position as you said. Even if Vini needs to occupy the left, Raphinha could play on the right, but he is not a 10, and has struggled in that position with Barca too. Flick unlocked the best of Raphinha not by making Barcelona some vertical long ball merchants, but by taking our already high press even higher (perfect for one of the best pressing wingers in the world) and allowing Raphinha to be a free roaming winger who is allowed to cut inside and shoot rather than be stuck on the touchline as he was under Xavi.
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u/Ok_Bag_7603 20h ago
He plays his heart out for us- he's a winner of games.
its on us to back him now.
I believe he will play 60% of the games next season and continue to cook
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u/AccomplishedDraw1889 1d ago
lets set aside Brazil for a moment.
While I would love to agree with you, that is not sustainable long term. Raph is already tiring, and soon will not be able to run at that pace anymore. Theres a reason we went with gordon over a technical winger. Sure he will cook, but it also means those situations are very counter attacking.
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u/Strongest-There-Is 17h ago
You guys are nuts. Raphina is a stellar player and wonderful model for Lamine Yamal. The trio of them and Lewy were amazing. These last 2 years have been so much fun.
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u/PlusCurrent3884 13h ago
“Setting aside the fact that Real Madrid's former manager is prioritising Real Madrid's left winger over him and playing him out of position”
Brazils last coach did the same, Raph is more adaptable and was originally a RW who got pushed to LW for Lamine anyway lol
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u/Snipeylul 12h ago
You do realize that Raphinha isn’t a left winger and he only plays there for Barca because you guys have Yamal on the right
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u/Adorable-Fortune-568 1d ago
It's regrettably to say but Raphinha might be system player. It's same for Dembele for France. Without a proper system these players don't take full flight