Raphinha 2019/20 – scout report

After joining Rennes from Portuguese Liga NOS side Sporting CP last September, Raphinha was one of the most impressive members of Julien Stéphan’s side throughout the 2019/20 season.

According to Understat, the Brazilian playmaker had an ‘xGChain’ of 10.97 for the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season, which is the highest xGChain of any Rennes player from that term, with the next highest being Romain Del Castillo, whose xGChain was 7.96 last season. This statistic provides us with a calculation of the total xG of every possession that the player was involved in and Raphinha’s relatively high total indicates that he played an integral creative role for his side throughout the campaign. 

In this tactical analysis piece in the form of a scout report, we will take an in-depth look at how Raphinha performed within Rennes’ tactics last season and we will try to identify some of the key traits and characteristics of the player that helped him to play an influential creative role for his side throughout the campaign, helping them to earn a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League, in this tactical analysis. 

Positioning

Raphinha is a left-footed playmaker who can perform his role effectively on either wing or in a more central attacking midfield position. At times last season, he popped up on the left-wing, while he also played in the ‘10’ position on occasion during the 2019/20 campaign. However, the 23-year-old playmaker was primarily found on Les Rouge et Noir’s right-wing last season. 

It may be fair to say that Stéphan was quite devoted to the 4-4-2 formation throughout the 2019/20 campaign. The 39-year-old coach set his Rennes side up in a 4-4-2 shape in 59.4% of their Ligue 1 fixtures last season. Only Angers, who utilised a 4-1-4-1 shape in 82% of their league games last season, utilised a particular formation in Ligue 1 during the 2019/20 campaign more often than Rennes utilised the 4-4-2 shape.

This image above shows us Raphinha’s heat map from the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season. This heat map provides us with an illustration which shows that while the playmaker did pop up on the left-wing on occasion, as well as drift into central areas of the pitch, he spent the vast majority of his time out wide on the right.