BarcelonaRaphinha Dias Belloli has changed her face. He appeared at training this Monday wearing a smile from ear to ear. “The goal is the best psychologist for a striker”, comment to ARA from Sant Joan Despí. The Brazilian winger is hardworking and tactically disciplined, and he has talent. But this is not enough for Barça. It goes without saying that without talent you will hardly be able to wear the Blaugrana shirt, but confidence also plays a crucial role. This is what Raphinha lacked: to break the mental barrier, to transfer to Barça the virtues he had shown both in the Premier League – and, before that, in France and Portugal – and with the Brazilian national team.
The winger, represented by Deco, a good friend of the president Joan Laporta and who placed him in the Blaugrana orbit, rejected Chelsea because he wanted to land in Barcelona. Its first months, however, have been complicated. Things didn’t work out for him and the blockade began: “It’s a scandal to see him train. How he defines it, the goals he scores with shots from outside the area… But it’s true that, in the first part of the course , he hasn’t been able to transfer that to the games. He wasn’t having any luck at the end. Things weren’t going the way he wanted and that ends up weighing on him.” Raphinha wanted to run too much. He was in a hurry to prove what a footballer he is and can become. “It was a matter of overexcitement. Changing Leeds for Barça, going to play in a stadium like the Camp Nou, knowing that a lot of money has been paid for him… The players and their environment are not strangers to all this, they end up noticing it”, resolve from Sant Joan Despí.
In addition, there was an atypical World Cup around the corner. He didn’t want to lose his title status with the canarinha and, with such a tight schedule, Barça had to win the carobs. Unconsciously, Raphinha was carrying a backpack of pressure on his back, while Ousmane Dembélé reasserted himself as a starter on the right wing, the position where the Brazilian feels most comfortable. Until the French fell injured shortly before half an hour of play in Montilivi. His turn was coming. “There are footballers who perform better if they know that they have constant competition to win the place. Others have more confidence when they feel that they have the place secured”, they explain from the coaching staff.
Raphinha is part of the second group. With the Frenchman’s injury, he knew that he was called to replace him. Now he has a month to consolidate the raphinism. In a loaded match against Girona, it was his pressure that caused the loss of Juanpe and the origin of the occasion that would end with Pedri’s only and definitive goal. It is one of the main virtues of the gaucho: to be pencaire With 48 recoveries in 19 League games – according to the data from the same competition – he is on the podium of the Blaugrana strikers in this aspect. The second is Dembélé, with 46 in 18 games, but having played nearly 160 more minutes than the ex-Leeds player.
From the sports city, they highlight the ease with which Raphinha assimilates defensive concepts. Xavi and his staff they see their team as a cog, in which each piece has its responsibilities: “We can’t have anarchic players”. A task that had to be insisted upon much more in the case of Dembélé. “Rapha is more disciplined in this aspect, while Ousmane is more of a player of moments, of inspiration.” The evolution of the French has been clear since the arrival of Xavi. Before his injury he was consistently playing his best minutes, not only from his usual exuberance, but also from his understanding of the collective game. This is the facet in which it was most necessary to “educate him, both collectively and individually”: “We could not allow him to make a good play but spend 30 minutes disconnected”.
The message at halftime against Sevilla
The work with Raphinha, on the other hand, has focused more on the selection of moments. If at Leeds the attacker from Porto Alegre had more carte blanche to play for himself in practically every intervention he had, at Barça he must have more selection ability when choosing when to play against each other one, to try the shot or to associate with the teammates. The technicians are also insistent that he must attack the spaces more. It’s a question of generating opportunities both individually and collectively: “If you attack the spaces, even if the ball doesn’t reach you, you force the opposing defense to hang on to you, you’re breaking it down and, that benefits so much the players who arrive from the second line like Robert [Lewandowski]”.
In fact, this very Sunday, against Sevilla, Xavi insisted on this concept during the break and Raphinha’s performance improved noticeably in the second half. The Brazilian provided his eighth assist of the season – overtaking Dembélé to become the team’s top assister – and scored his sixth goal as a Blaugrana player. In the end, the goal is the best medicine for a striker. And Barça has no choice but to take advantage of a footballer for whom he paid 58 million plus seven in variables. Selling it, if it is not for a mortar, would not be considered for the purposes of fair play.