CRUNCH TIME FOR RAPHINHA

The time has come for Raphinha to take a step forward. The Brazilian, who is going through a bad patch on the pitch, sees Dembélé’s injury as another opportunity to show why Barça invested so much capital in acquiring his services. With four goals scored after the halfway point of the season, the Porto Alegre native must dispel doubts about his performance, adaptation and footballing ability.

Raphinha thus becomes the starting winger for the five weeks that his team-mate will be out of action due to a ruptured rectus anterior muscle in his left leg last Saturday at Montilivi. He now occupies a position where ‘El Mosquito’ has shone and where he has earned the praise of both the coaching staff and the fans. The right flank is Raphinha’s habitat and it is now that he has the chance to shine in the position where he excelled in the Leeds United set-up.

The situation is not easy for the player. He came with the expectation of being a strong competition for Ousmane Dembélé but the reality is that he is far surpassed by his teammate: 28 games played (23 starts) with 8 goals and 7 assists for the Frenchman; for 27 games played (15 starts) with 4 goals and 7 assists for Raphinha. To this must be added the contribution in the game of one and the other, where Ousmane is favoured by the acclimatisation to the dynamic and the understanding with his teammates.

He already stated on the eve of the World Cup in Qatar that his adaptation to Barça was in full development under a process that he was facing naturally and without pressure, helped by the coaching staff and teammates. In a style so different from that of his former club, adaptation can sometimes take longer.

The ideal situation is right in front of him. The Catalan club must visit Seville and Valencia in two difficult league games against Real Betis and Villarreal CF. In addition, the Culés host Sevilla FC in domestic competition and kick off their UEFA Europa League campaign, a must-win competition, against Manchester United. These are matches of such calibre that leave Raphina with an ideal scenario to demonstrate why he was singled out by Xavi and his board this summer to be the ideal replacement on the right flank of a system in which his role is fundamental.

The pressure is also there, and Raphinha knows it. In a club with no margin for error due to the limited coffers and the inheritance received, which continues to torment the offices today, the performance offered so far is not enough, and the Brazilian player can be offered to the market this coming summer if things do not go as he expected. The ease of making more money with him than with other options would put Barça in a situation that must be reversed with his play and his ability in the next five weeks, and in the remaining months of the competition.

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