Rafinha Alcantaras Barcelona story was always a peculiar one. Just like his brother, Thiago, before him, the Brazilian was always showing promising signs that he could develop into a world-class player. But as time went by, he unfortunately kept getting sidelined by injury after injury until finally, Barcelona could not take any more. He had to be shipped away.
But despite his fragility, there lies a really talented player beneath those layers of fitness issues and this tactical analysis scout report will use analysis and statistics to give you Rafinha’s in-depth tactical profile.
Player overview
Rafinha Alcantara is a 26-year-old Brazilian midfielder that spent vast majority of his career at Barcelona. Some of his best attributes are, like with many Brazilian players, technical ability, dribbling, passing and ball control.
What he lacks in sheer strength, Rafinha makes up in technical terms and will often beat his marker and set up his teammates, doing so more often than being the one to finish the actions himself.
His biggest enemy, as was mentioned above, are the injuries that keep him from developing further. But when he’s fit and firing, Rafinha truly is a great player. This tactical analysis scout report will now go into more detail with some of his most prominent traits.
Tactical analysis – passing and dribbling abilities
What stands out the most from Rafinha’s game is definitely his technical skill. The Brazilian is always safe on the ball and with his great passing range, he is a danger for the opposition whenever he enters the final third.
Last season, however, he only played a total of 547 minutes, which makes the sample of this analysis rather small. This is really important to point us as his stats have been clearly affected by his game time.
Still, Rafinha’s greatest strengths can immediately be seen with his ability on the ball. He is a rather agile and speedy player who won’t shy away from a duel with his marker. Last season, he averaged 4.61 dribbles per game, completing an impressive 60.7%. We can see his attacking statistics below.
What immediately catches the eye are the dribbles, shot assists and offensive duels, all of which stand out in this section. Rafinha is aggressive in both his offensive and defensive approach and despite not being physically dominant, he won 50% of his duels and on average engaged in 11.19.
But it’s his dribbling and aggressiveness combined with his keen passing skills that make him a rather rounded up midfielder/ forward. Rafinha averaged 93% passing accuracy and 1.15 through passes per game last season, which still makes him threat going forward.
Let’s
