The Curious Case of Rafinha Alcántara, Barça’s Forgotten Man

With the new summer signings creating a crowded midfield, where does Rafinha fit into the mix?

So much can happen in a year. Friends can grow apart, new relationships can be forged, and your body can drastically change. However, your personal life isn’t the only thing that’s affected with time. In as little as 365 days, sports team can undergo a metamorphosis that makes you wonder how you got there. How can everything can look so different in such a small span of time?

If you wonder how that relates to sports, look no further than situation regarding Rafinha.

11 months ago, everything changed for the Brazilian. Rafinha had come on as a late substitute in a Champions League match vs Roma. He was only in the game for about 30 seconds before he was subject to a nasty tackle from Radja Nainggolan. Rafinha suffered a torn ACL, and subsequently missed the majority of the 2015/2016 season.

At the time, this was a deadly blow for Barcelona. Their options in the midfield were scare already, and this only complicated things further. Iniesta and Rakitic weren’t exactly 100% fit. Sergi Roberto was spending most of his time in the RB position. There was no Xavi anymore. Things looked bleak.

But Barcelona were able to persevere through the tough moments and find success. But for Rafinha, it was a largely forgettable season. This year, he’s hoping to change his fortune and get back to being an impact member for the blaugrana  in the midfield. 

More from Everything Barca

• FC Barcelona tracking Belgian Wonderkid
• FC Barcelona vs Betis Player Ratings
• Barça boss Xavi to get contract extension
• FC Barcelona planning swoop for Arsenal midfielder
• Barcelona interested in €30 million wonderkid

What’s that? Barcelona have 7 midfielders competing for 3 spots? Oh, well, what about the front 3? Seriously? There’s 5 players vying for it? Jeez, this is worse than I thought. Let’s look at the competition that Rafinha has to deal with in attack and midfield for this season. Also, we’ll see what his chances are of getting playing time over them.

Midfield

1. Andrés Iniesta- No. Just no. Move on.
2. Sergio Busquets- They don’t even play the same position. Next.
3. Ivan Rakitic- One of Lucho’s favorite players. I can’t see him being dropped.
4. Denis Suárez- Seems to be the perfect replacement for Iniesta. Very promsing. There’s a reason he wears the No. 6 shirt.
5. André Gomes- There’s no way Rafinha will be played over a man who can end up costing Barcelona €55 million. Besides that, Gomes can play all 3 positions.
6. Sergi Samper- We finally have someone who Rafinha will play over. But that’s because he’s more than likely to go one loan.
7. Sergi Roberto- Don’t expect him to be a prominent figure in the midfield, as he’ll spend most of his time at RB. But if he does play there, he’s likely to start more over Rafinha.

Attack

1) Leo Messi- See Bullet 1 from Midfield

2 Neymar- See Bullet 1 from Midfield

3) Luis Suárez – See Bullet 1 from Midfield

4) Turan- the Turk has looked promising on the left-wing, but Rafinha doesn’t play there. So there won’t be much competition between these two.

5) Munir- the youngster has had a wonderful preseason and has so much potential. He’ll probably feature more as a backup for Suárez.

So yeah, there’s a lot of competition for Rafinha. Where does he have to offer to the squad? Let’s take a look.

Dribbling

This is where Rafinha excels the most. He’s adept at controlling the ball in tight spaces. Rafinha loves to run at defenders and use his superior technical skill to blow past them. This makes him an ideal La Masia graduate.

Defensive Effort

Rafinha is more than willing to track back and recover the ball on defense. This quality means he’ll always be admired. His effort means he’ll run up and down the entire pitch if necessary. Teams always want to have players that can contribute on both ends.

Rafinha will more likely than not be deployed in RW or CM. Lets go through both options.

Right wing is the only logical option along the front three for Rafinha to play. He doesn’t have the ability to hold up play, so he striker position is out. Left wing seems tempting, but Rafinha is very one footed. It doesn’t make sense to play a left-footed player on the right side. So that leaves the right-wing. This gives Rafinha the opportunity to cut inside and run at defenders. But there’s something inhibiting him from succeeding there, and that’s a lack of pace. He doesn’t have blistering speed, and that makes it easier for defenders to track him down. A bit of lackluster shooting is disappointing as well.

In the midfield, he can either be a box to box player like Rakitic, or play a more advanced position like Iniesta. I would say the former is more likely. One thing that Rafinha lacks as an attacking midfielder is vision. He struggles to find the final pass that really breaks down the defense.

My opinion on Rafinha is this: He does things…ok. And that resonates when it comes to the depth chart. For example, I probably wouldn’t play him ahead of Munir in the front three. In the midfield, he’s probably the 6th choice. Don’t get me wrong; he isn’t a poor player. But if he was higher up on the depth chart, I would be a little worried.

But there’s still hope for the Brazilian. He’s only 23 years old, so there’s still plenty of time to improve. And Barcelona have shown they trust him, as he penned a contract extension last year. He’s now tied to the Camp Nou until 2020.

The Brazilian player is definitely a curious case. Does he have an exact position? If so, what? There’s no denying the questions he brings. However, he’s going to be working his tail off to prove he’s Barça material this season.