Rafinha Alcantara

[KingMessi]

Rafa just made a MoM performance. Can we be a bit more apprecative?
And stop comparing him with an idea of what Thiago was (because we don't know what he's now).
Different systems, different players.

+1

 

[JamDav1982]

Rafa just made a MoM performance. Can we be a bit more apprecative?
And stop comparing him with an idea of what Thiago was (because we don't know what he's now).
Different systems, different players.

Did he get MOTM ahead of Messi?

Insane if he did.

 

[Kerrybai]

No he wont. Unless Thiago is affected by injury.

Can revisit this thread in future.

Thiago is riddled with injuries. I'd take Rafihna over him any day with his injury problems. Rafa is only 21 and has the potential to have a similar or even better career.

Also f*** Thiago. He made his choice and left, his brother deserves a heap of praise for his game tonight.

 

[JamDav1982]

Thiago is riddled with injuries. I'd take Rafihna over him any day with his injury problems. Rafa is only 21 and has the potential to have a similar or even better career.

Also f*** Thiago. He made his choice and left, his brother deserves a heap of praise for his game tonight.

I said injuries permitting and the opinion is based on their ability.

Personally I really dont think Rafinha has the potential to have a better career and would be nowhere near getting game in Barca midfields of the past whereas Thiago would have been good enough.

Everytthing will pan out and we can revisit this thread but for me Rafinha will not make it as a starter at Barca.

Hope I am wrong.

 

[footyfan]

I'm a much bigger fan of Thiago than Rafinha. I see nothing special in Rafinha at all, I mean what is he even good at that he can make it at Barca? At this point, he is a slightly better and slightly more adventurous version of Sergi Roberto.

Let's see how he progresses, but I've been reading that he should be displacing Iniesta....For realzzzz? C'mon.

 

[Observer]

Give the guy some time to prove his worth before you discard him.

Thiago is out, does not play the same position, he's made of glass and we need CM rotation given the current state of our midfield.

 

[DinhoR10]

I wonder how this forum is going to react when he's our starting CM in 2 years

I'm stating this as a fact cause as long as Lucho is here Rafinha's spot on the team is guaranteed.

Thiago is/was good but I think nostalgia is kicking in with some of you guys here, He had more flare but they both can dribble though 5 players so does that matter? They both can make accurate long balls, they both can do a whole bunch of flicks and what not and they're both pretty good defensively. Thiago has better vision atm and is better at through balls but he isn't jesus and having him here wouldn't have changed last season for the better, even iniesta in complete god mode could only manage to get create one goal against the mega bus of atletico and honestly even if he was fully fit I don't see him being able to fit into Lucho's Barca as well as Rafinha can.

It's time to move on, he has.

 

[KingMessi]

It's time to move on, he has.

Agreed.

 

[Zangash]

Whenever Rafa has a poor or decent game it's "He's so awful". Whenever he has a good or a great game it's "Thiago is better".

Thiago doesn't play for us anymore, and he's not coming back. Get the fuck over it. I could talk about how much better Isco is than both of them, but I don't because that is completely irrelevant.


Anyways, he had a great game. Over the course of the season he has improved drastically. It's a shame Lucho is unwilling to blood any other young players into the team the way he has Rafinha, but I suppose we should be happy that at least one youngster is coming into the team. I don't get why everyone has to so aggressively state that he won't be a starter one day. Do you have a crystal ball to tell you he'll stay at his current level forever or what? I personally am not too big a Rafinha fan but just him being able to play in a big game like this with our usual strongest XI shows that he certainly has the potential to be a starter one day if he works for it and continues to improve over the years.

 

[RightGuy]

Great game,loved it and keep training.He has that x factor to be our starting cm,not now but not far.

 

[ronniecro]

i'm glad that he played last night,he is huge potential and he needs to play in tougher matches too to gain confidence
i see comparisons with thiago,i think that rafinha can reach his level,and since he is in barca he can be even better than thiago
if everything goes well for him we could have a real best of a player in next few years

 

[anguy]

I wonder how this forum is going to react when he's our starting CM in 2 years

If that's true, we're screwed. Guy is good player, but he's not CM.

 

[DinhoR10]

If that's true, we're screwed. Guy is good player, but he's not CM.

In Lucho's system he is, and up until as late as last year people were saying his best position was CF I don't think we need to put our young players in boxes and just let them progress and see where they are at around 24-25 I mean who really thought Messi would be the best CF in the world back in 2006?

 

[instinct]

A player develops with regular playing time and Rafinha got almost full 90 minutes vs Villareal and had a very impressive performance. Yet I still see people complaining but whatever.

Comparisons with Thiago are legit since they're brother. Maybe the former would be a better fit for us but we don't have him anymore. What we have is a 21 year old player who impressed in the minutes he got. He has flair, dribbling skills, work-rate and decent passing. His defensive contribution is worth mentioning too.
I like the fact that Lucho trusts Rafinha and gives him regular playing time because that's what a young player needs to develop. How in the world is he supposed to improve his flaws when he sits on the bench the whole time? And again, we're not talking about a player who didn't impress at all for several years now like Sergi Roberto. We talk about a 21-year old player who was a key for Celta's ''success'' last season and had some very good moments in the minutes he got this season.

What have we become that only a couple of games where he didn't even play bad we write him off. Is Barca not the club who helps young homegrown players to develop into future stars anymore? Sad.

The same will probably happen with Denis Suarez. I can see it coming.

 

[BBZ8800]

I like the fact that Lucho trusts Rafinha and gives him regular playing time because that's what a young player needs to develop. How in the world is he supposed to improve his flaws when he sits on the bench the whole time? And again, we're not talking about a player who didn't impress at all for several years now like Sergi Roberto. We talk about a 21-year old player who was a key for Celta's ''success'' last season and had some very good moments in the minutes he got this season.

It is not that simple.

For example, Rafinha had a lot of bad/average games in the first 3-4 Months of the Season (ok, people will say that the whole team played poorly. That's true also.) In that period he hasn't earned credits.

Now, Lucho was almost sacked 8 games ago.
After that he FINALLY stopped rotating players, he found new tactics and found a new starting 11, and they have built a nice chemistry after that.
We won 8 matches in a row after that.

Now, some players from that starting 11 have started to be slightly tired for playing in every match (like Rakitic).
Now, Lucho gave a rest to Rakitic in order to have him fresh again in upcoming matches.

So, you can't have both:
1. playing with the best 11 and trying to build a chemistry with starting 11
2. and giving a lot of minutes to younger players, like Rafinha in this moment

Ok, some will reply: "Rafinha is even better than Rakitic, we should play him all the time" (I don't agree that Rafinha is better in this moment).
But anyway, even if Rafinha is better, and let's say that we play Rafinha now all the time in our starting 11, the same problem will occur.
=> sooner or later, we will have a new young gem in our team (Deulo, Halil, Adama, Samper). What then?
-- currently people are saying: let's play Rafinha-Iniesta-Busi all the time
-- and let's say that we start to play that way and that we create a nice chemistry, but what then?
-- then people will ask: We need to play Samper now all the time to turn him into a good player
-- does that mean that we suddenly have to kick out Busi from our team, in order to play Iniesta-Rafinha-Samper?
-- ok, let's assume that we will do even that, and that it will work.
But what's next?
= then we will have Halilovic, for example
-- what then? To kick even Iniesta, and to play Rafinha-Halilovic-Samper?
-- again, ok, but what's next?
-- in a year or two, some new kid will come, and what then? To kick someone from established Rafinha-Samper-Halil AGAIN, to incorporate some new young player again?

My point is=there needs to be balance between playing the best 11, building some chemistry between starting 11 and between giving some chances to youngsters.
a) if you play only starting 11
= they will get tired
= plus, you won't develop your youngsters
b) if you will play youngsters too often
= your results will probably be weaker
= you won't build a chemistry with your starting 11
= older players will get angry

Is Barca not the club who helps young homegrown players to develop into future stars anymore? Sad.
The same will probably happen with Denis Suarez. I can see it coming.

About this part, it is "easy" to give chances to younger players when you have 10 points more than Real Madrid.
When we are in harder situation, like currently in La Liga and in Champions league, it is very risky to play youngsters too often, and to play 2-3 youngsters in the same time.

For example, if Lucho hadn't play the same staring 11 in the last 7-8 matches, we wouldn't win 8 matches in a row, we wouldn't find new tactics, we wouldn't build team's chemistry, high morale and momentum.
= we earned morale, self belief and momentum
-- but also, we didn't play younger players too often in that period (Munir, Sandro, Rafinha, Bartra, Montoya)

-- so, you win in some areas, and you lose in others

If we played youngsters, we would help in their development, but our first team would be probably a crap currently, Lucho would be sacked and we wouldn't have the new tactics.

Again, you can't have "both".
This is why Barca's youngsters need to perform good right away, and you can't get 1000 chances like Deulofeu.
Barca can't wait for any player for too long.

The club is more important than ANY player.
With some posters I sometimes get a feeling that a developing of Bartra, Adama or Deulo in particular is more important than a club.