11 - Raphinha

[Barcaman]

Raphinha: "If there are people in the dressing room who are not excited about winning, then they shouldn't be here..."

Interesting. Stirs a bit of fire under whiners but also kinda reeks of mediocrity as idea here is good football first.

 

[serghei]

Look Bayerns bench players against PSG.

Mane, Sane, Cancelo and Gnabry.

Good teams have 2 great players on same position, we are broke and it seems like it miracle to have 2 good players on each position.

But that is what you get after many years of paying idiots big salary and paying transfers like kid on manager.

That's what I'm saying. People expect us to compete with these teams with a shit bench. Then complain our form goes to shit when multiple first 11 players get injured.

Raphinha has been the best offensive player in the team for months after Dembele injury and Lewa's suspensions / shit form / injury post WC.

In 2023, Raphinha has 1 goal / assist per 79 mins played. Easily the best offensive player in 2023.

 

[Respekt_III]

Lewy - 50m
Torres - 60m
Raphina - 60m
Kounde - 60m

170m spent on our forwards and we cant miss a single player apparently. Look at what Liverpool paid for their players and how most of them have performed when fit compared to ours thanks to our elite coach and sporting director the infallible xavi.

Jota - 40m
Nunez - 85m
Luis Diaz - 45m
Salah - 35m
Gakpo - 42m
Konate - 40m

This 2 player thing for each position is a lod of shit.

 

[serghei]

Liverpool hit a home run with Salah and Mane indeed, although both were signed before the market exploded completely. The rest, not so much.

The 2 top players for each position is not a load of shit lol. Most top teams have 4-5 highly rated attackers.

 

[iniestaGOAT]

Lewy - 50m
Torres - 60m
Raphina - 60m
Kounde - 60m

170m spent on our forwards and we cant miss a single player apparently. Look at what Liverpool paid for their players and how most of them have performed when fit compared to ours thanks to our elite coach and sporting director the infallible xavi.

Jota - 40m
Nunez - 85m
Luis Diaz - 45m
Salah - 35m
Gakpo - 42m
Konate - 40m

This 2 player thing for each position is a lod of shit.

Those Liverpool signings are horrible bro

Are you high?

 

[ajnotkeith]

Lewy - 50m
Torres - 60m
Raphina - 60m
Kounde - 60m

170m spent on our forwards and we cant miss a single player apparently. Look at what Liverpool paid for their players and how most of them have performed when fit compared to ours thanks to our elite coach and sporting director the infallible xavi.

Jota - 40m
Nunez - 85m
Luis Diaz - 45m
Salah - 35m
Gakpo - 42m
Konate - 40m

This 2 player thing for each position is a lod of shit.

To be honest, most of those are not better than Raphinha/Ferran.

 

[serghei]

To be honest, most of those are not better than Raphinha/Ferran.

Ferran yes, Raphinha no. Raphinha is around Jota and Diaz level. Ferran is a flop, don't have big hopes we could get something out of him despite his good age.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Ferran yes, Raphinha no. Raphinha is around Jota and Diaz level. Ferran is a flop, don't have big hopes we could get something out of him despite his good age.

Ferran has two big problems - technique and mentality.

His technique is pretty poor for the level he wants to play at and he's always screwing up touches and shooting poorly etc.

But he would be a pretty good player if he wasn't so mentally weak. Sometimes I think he absorbs what people say about him into his game. He isn't slow or weak at all but almost never tries to knock the ball past a FB, and gives up so easily in duels.

When he plays without boundaries he can be a good player. Unfortunately the mental side of the game is important too.

 

[serghei]

One thing is for sure, if we weaken our attack by selling Raphinha and keeping Ferran Torres, it's a back step. This doesn't improve the attack but weakens it.

Raphinha if he continues on this recent path, he is likely to reach 25 goals & assists in his first season. Not bad for someone that wasn't a clear starter this season.

He's clearly not the issue in this squad at all.

If anything, when Dembele is gonna be back, I'd fancy Dembele - Lewa - Raphinha in return of the Copa. Give Ousmane a run of games on the left. We gave up too soon on this idea.

 

[ajnotkeith]

One thing is for sure, if we weaken our attack by selling Raphinha and keeping Ferran Torres, it's a back step. This doesn't improve the attack but weakens it.

Raphinha if he continues on this recent path is likely to reach 25 goals & assists in his first season. Not bad for someone that wasn't a clear starter this season.

He's clearly not the issue in this squad at all.

Agree. Raphinha has been pretty good recently. He's making a lot of crucial goals and assists to win points but people are judging him because he isn't that aesthetic.

He gives his all every game and can press for 90 minutes too. Not a bad fit for Xavi's system and I don't think it was too bad of a deal.

 

[serghei]

Agree. Raphinha has been pretty good recently. He's making a lot of crucial goals and assists to win points but people are judging him because he isn't that aesthetic.

He gives his all every game and can press for 90 minutes too. Not a bad fit for Xavi's system and I don't think it was too bad of a deal.

I know, don't give a shit about aesthetics. If he does the work and does the runs and his service is as good as recently, let alone improves on those, he's a good player for us.

He can still improve his shooting. That part of his game has been a letdown, he was a good shooter at Leeds, but so far he's not delivering in this area.

 

[Porque]

Only reason we sell Raphinha over Ferran is because he has double the market value.

Sport already mentioned that we have earmarked 30-35m for Ferran and 65m+ for Raphinha. Which basically means we would sell Ferran for 20m and Raphinha for 35m

But we're not really In the financial position to make the best sporting decision unfortunately.

 

[serghei]

Only reason we sell Raphinha over Ferran is because he has double the market value.

Sport already mentioned that we have earmarked 30-35m for Ferran and 65m+ for Raphinha. Which basically means we would sell Ferran for 20m and Raphinha for 35m

But we're not really In the financial position to make the best sporting decision unfortunately.

I'd sell Ferret for 30m and keep Raphinha. It's not like we can bring in Leao or Osimhen which would be big hits in attack. We'll probably bring someone who is anything but a sure thing in attack. Like that Brazilian dude.

30m for Ferret is optimistic though.

At this point, we can't be selling the players who do well and keep the underperformers. Torres is in his 2nd season and producing far worse than Raphinha. That's purely offensive numbers, not even discussing that Raphinha is better defensively and in terms of pressing as well.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Only reason we sell Raphinha over Ferran is because he has double the market value.

Sport already mentioned that we have earmarked 30-35m for Ferran and 65m+ for Raphinha. Which basically means we would sell Ferran for 20m and Raphinha for 35m

But we're not really In the financial position to make the best sporting decision unfortunately.

I feel bad about Ferran because he's got some talents but clearly is too mentally fragile to play at a top club at this point.

 

[serghei]

I feel bad about Ferran because he's got some talents but clearly is too mentally fragile to play at a top club at this point.

We'll keep Ferran if a good offer doesn't come.

I'd rather keep the same players, bring back Abde, and go at it like this another season. Maybe bring Gundogan and the Valencia loanee back in midfield for depth and that's it.

Last thing to do is to mess with players that are upping their contribution like Raphinha has been doing lately. We should encourage that if anything.