In spite of everything that has gone wrong for FC Barcelona recently, the team still looks for bright spots. A project for the future is being built at the club, but even that needs the right profiles within the team. For now, Barcelona are reliant on the profiles that they already have in their team.
One name who has definitely found a newfound purpose within this current Barcelona under Xavi Hernandez is none other than Raphinha. The Brazilian winger, formerly from Leeds United, seems to finally have a place within Xavi’s system and one that suits him rather effectively well.
As highlighted by SPORT, for the Barcelona head coach, the idea of using Raphinha as a mixture between a midfielder and a winger is quite the enticing prospect. In fact, while talking about his new role within the team, Xavi even stated the following:
“Whoever plays in that position must contribute a lot, because you are the free man. Raphinha now has the soul of a midfielder, he is adapting well to that position. Tomorrow we will see because we have many options to play there.”
Statistically, Raphinha’s new role within the team has allowed him to be more efficient than ever before. Over the last six fixtures across all competitions, the Barcelona winger has 4 goals and 2 assists to his name. This development in terms of his form can greatly be contributed to this new role for him.
However, the true essence behind this was to find an alternative to the intensity that Barcelona lost with Gavi’s injury in November. Raphinha offers that relentlessness within the team, but his natural right-wing position is now predominantly occupied by Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal.
Thus, the options to deploy Raphinha both as a left-winger and as an interior grew rapidly. Now, with both intensity and efficiency, the Barcelona forward continues to grow his stocks and has managed to find the most consistent version of himself that he has shown since his move to the Catalan club.
