On August 13, when an hour had passed during the Barcelona-Rayo Vallecano match, the fourth referee showed the sign with the number 22. Raphinha gave his place on the field to Ansu Fati. The marker had not moved nor did it after Xavi's changes. The Brazilian didn't know it – it was his official blaugrana debut, the first matchday of the League – but the sequence was going to be repeated constantly in his first season at the Camp Nou.
It has almost become a habit. Nothing to do with his role in his previous team. In two seasons playing for Leeds United, first under Marcelo Bielsa and then, in the last three months, with the American Marsch, Raphinha was relieved 15 times. In Barcelona, in half a year, he has already made 18 changes, three more than in his time in England.
It is not the first time that the Brazilian winger has not taken well a substitution ordered by Xavi Hernández. It rains on wet for him because it is that only on one occasion that he started as a starter has he completed the 90 minutes of the match. You have to go back to the beginning of September, on matchday 4, when Barça visited Sevilla. The blaugrana won 0-3 and Raphinha, who scored the first goal, did play the entire game at Pizjuán.
Since then, whenever the player has been in the eleven, he has ended up leaving before the final whistle to the shower.
There is another fact that makes you think. In up to eight games the Brazilian has been the first victim when the coach has moved the bench in search of revulsives. Raphinha is annoyed by not having the continuity that he would like or being seen as the weakest link in the chain, that he is not given more confidence.
It was not the case against Manchester United, when it was the fifth and final substitution. However, on Thursday, even Jordi Alba had to calm down his teammate, who when he arrived on the bench took her with a fridge and the seats.
Raphinha understood, after assisting in the 1-0 and scoring 2-2, that he was on a roll and that he was a source of danger for De Gea's goal, who shortly before had made it 3-2 after a header from the striker . The same verdict was made by the public, who whistled the exchange in the 83rd minute.
With a cooler head, the player personally apologized to the coach for his angry reaction and also did so publicly, extending it to the fans and to Ferran Torres, the teammate who took his place. “He wants to play, participate and help. I, who have been there, understand it. I always tell them that they have to get angry. And they can even insult me if they want. Really, I learned this from many coaches ”, he downplayed the Xavi issue.
It is true that the adaptation of the 26-year-old Brazilian international has been slower than that of other signings this summer, such as Lewandowski, Christensen or Koundé. Barcelona paid 58 million plus seven in variables to get Raphinha's services, the price of crack and also strategic investment.
Without being spectacular, the left-handed winger's numbers are interesting. He has scored 7 goals and has given 9 assists in 31 games, figures similar to those of Dembélé, who has participated in 15 goals (8 goals and 7 passes). And the Brazilian is going from less to more, he is growing. Since he returned to the competition after the World Cup – things did not work out for him in Qatar – he is the Barcelona player with the best aim: he has scored five goals, the same as Lewandowski and one more than Pedri. He is not the most consistent player in the game but he is capable of turning the situation around within the same game, a quality that makes him important in evenly matched matches, as evidenced by the fact that five of his seven goals have come in the second half. Raphinha's are good.
