2
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 11
- Clean sheets
- 4
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 2
- Status
I meant to say "that can make him", not "that is" so that's my mistake.
In response to your response, I fail to recall the last time Rafael was truly troubled by someone in 1-on-1 situations. He's very good at stopping players from troubling him.
Are you referring to Rafael's Vardy incident and Berahino's goal as signs that he is an inconsistent defender?
P.S.: I wouldn't put Carvajal up there, yet. He's still prone to errors here and there, but he is becoming much more consistent, and he is starting to become much tougher to beat.
In the Vardy incident, he should have been better before the incident, in general Rafael is good defensively in the big games and average in the others.
I tend to use Ashley Cole as reference and he was ruthless all the time, honestly i don't know what Rafael lacks because he really showed everything but it's not always there. To rich the next level, he will need to be ruthless defensively, all the time.
Now, I think about leicester's goal in the first half, he is not at fault, but by precaution he needs to anticipate and place himself between the ball and the striker, not behind him.
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Are you Efan Ekoku? This is the view he would have taken lol. Speaking of which, I do miss him in commentaries...
Anyways, I see how you view defenders, and I used to view them like that as well. However, I then realised that I stopped giving credit to the attacking players for their goals.
If you want to view defenders like that, go ahead, but if you're going to criticise Rafael for Ulloa's first goal, then I will say that no one else can really deal with that except for a bigger, stronger full back like Ivanovic or Alaba.
Is this based on the fact that he declared that he started training a couple of days back or has someone actually confirmed that he is fit for Southampton?
With both him and Rooney back in the side, I am beginning to like our chances in the match at St Mary's.
Physioroom.com says that Rafael will be fit to play by that time, so unless he gets a freak injury in training, expect him to start ahead of Valencia on the right.
Dont want to look like a squawka whore, but just using some stats as the Rafa love can never be broken. But saying Rafa is much better defensively, out of these facts isnt really legit. I know there's more to it, but if Rafa would be so much better defensively, I think the differences would be bigger.There's a reason why Debuchy's "underrated". He's very poor defensively, but he's great going forward. He's an unreliable right back who's going to be the weak spot of any good team's defence. Chambers at right back has been better than Debuchy, and I'm baffled that Wenger didn't go for Aurier instead of Debuchy, even if Aurier's naive as a young player.
I'm honestly surprised that people view Rafael as being worse than Sagna, Debuchy, Coleman, and Clyne. To see @JPRouve mention that Rafael's a poor man marker made me think back to his last appearance, against Chelsea, where he almost completely marked out Hazard, which reminded me of countless more appearances where he marked out top class players (his former teammate and right-wing partner C. Ronaldo included).
It's pretty obvious that Rafael's being underrated due to his injuries. His very few appearances on the pitch make his bad moments more memorable than the good ones. I guess they'll realise Rafael's value once he leaves and we get someone who's not as good, defensively, as he is whilst offering the same attacking threat if not better.
Currently, Azpi and Zabaleta have performed better than Rafael. Ivanovic has been on par with him, with Chambers just, just below him and very close to being on par with Rafael, whilst Clyne and Coleman haven't shown the defensive solidity that Rafael does. Debuchy, though...
Did you seriously printscreen your entire desktop to get those pictures?
Yes, before the Caf I have never made a screenshot on the pc, don't know how to do it the other way x_x.Did you seriously printscreen your entire desktop to get those pictures?
Why does this idea that physioroom have inside information on players fitness persist? They just set dates based on the new reports when the injury happened.
Regularly fit - not another RB I'd take out there. But, I am getting to the point where a lot have long reached - which is if he can't play consistently due to injury issues then get someone else in that can. I like someone's logic earlier in the thread, if Rafael is 100% the best but, is only available half the games and our back up is good for giving us 70% of what Rafa gives us - then in the long run it's better to just get someone who may be 90% of what Rafael gives us when fit but at least they'd be doing that consistently and not to mention the effect of having a settled backline.
Snipping tool is your friend.
It really is frustrating the way we have injury concerns over ever fecking defender in our squad. I used to expect fullbacks to be more or less bullet-proof, with the likes of Denis Irwin chugging up and down the sideline week after week after week. Sheasy was almost as impervious to damage, then Paddy Evra turned out to be his heir apparent. Just did not get injured, no matter how many tackles he flew into or how many times he was kicked.
More recently the likes of City and Chelsea seem to have also nailed down indestructible fullbacks in Zabaleta and Ivanovic. Up and down the league table you see club after club picking the same fullback every single weekend. So bloody annoying that this seems to be completely beyond us.
More recently the likes of City and Chelsea seem to have also nailed down indestructible fullbacks in Zabaleta and Ivanovic. Up and down the league table you see club after club picking the same fullback every single weekend. So bloody annoying that this seems to be completely beyond us.
We need to buy a reliable fullback. Rafael is anything but reliable unfortunately.
None of our defenders can be classed as reliable.
The same Squawka that gives Zabaleta a defensive score of -2.2? It's better to look at more stats and watch their actual performances than just look at the scores. I did this both in Squawka and WhoScored (I analysed Rafael, Debuchy, Coleman, Clyne, and Zabaleta), and both have confirmed the notion that I had all along: Rafael's defensive abilities and performances are up there with the best.
Debuchy, Clyne, and Zabaleta all have more tackles attempted per 90 minutes than Rafael. These players have also conceded more fouls per 90 minutes than Rafael. Rafael, however, has the most interceptions per 90 minutes as well as the most blocks per 90 minutes. He also has the second-most clearances per 90 minutes, with Debuchy having the most. These stats tell me what I have always seen with Debuchy, Clyne, and Zabaleta: these full backs defend very aggressively. Zabaleta's the only one out of those three who tries to mark the opposition whilst the other two defend more like wingers in that they get right at the face of the opponents and try to win the ball very quickly. It also helps that Debuchy and Clyne have the pace to recover themselves and make a tackle to stop the opposing ball carrier from making things worse. This aggressive defensive style is what makes them look like better defenders when they actually aren't. Debuchy and Clyne have shown a poor sense of awareness around them, and both have been poor at marking their man when they aren't able to press at the opposing ball holder (see Clyne vs. Ox yesterday and every single Debuchy appearance). Coleman has also shown this bad defensive awareness and below-average marking ability even though he isn't as aggressive as Clyne, Debuchy, and Zabaleta.
Also, after comparing Rafael and Debuchy with Chambers, Ivanovic, and Azpilicueta, I've reached the same conclusion. Chambers, being a more natural full back than Debuchy, is much better defensively than he is. Same goes for Ivanovic and Azpilicueta.
Tackles shouldn't be the be-all and end-all to how good a full back is. If you play too aggressively, you can easily get caught out of position, and you can easily be beaten by good dribblers. Rafael may not have had the most tackles, but he's been better, defensively, than Debuchy, Coleman, Clyne, and even Zabaleta this season.
I know that they don't have inside information, but their predictions have been spot on lots of times. Not only this, but ManUtd.com used to use Physioroom.com as the source for injury reports on their website, and I see why they used to.
At least this is better than the fake reports that come out from journalists.
We only have two senior fullbacks, Rafael and Shaw. We have 6 CBs. Three of them are injury prone, 2 are young and not ready. We also have Thorpe and Michael Keane. We need a RB
Rafael's injury woes would explain the links with Clyne today.
I thought he said he was back training now?
He's a brilliant right back. dont want a new right back replacement.
Hugs
Except for when he always gets injured and we have to play Valencia at RB.
Feck man, he just needs to get fit. He plays for the shirt every time he's out there.
Did you feel the same about Hargreaves in midfield?
Yes, his injury concerns are a worry 2 seasons out of 6 with under 20 appearances but I just think at 24 his talent and proven performances as shown in 2012/2013 warrant faith and a bit of patience with him. He was tied with zabaleta as the best right back in the league at 22. and he is more than capable of putting big runs of games together. he's one of the only players who go out and not only turn up in big games, but show actual grit and fight, he's a trooper. there are worse backup right backs to have than Valencia who has done very well and phil jones who can do a shift there defensively if push came to shove.
Getting a player of his quality in would cost us an absolute fortune and i just dont see the point, we could go out and grab Darmian? (is it? the italian lad) and he could struggle to adapt and get a few knocks as well.
I see him as a potential captain after rooney.
No one is questioning his ability at RB. People are concerned that our first choice RB always seems to be injured and cannot be relied on to be fit a whole season. Valencia is an okay backup but it would be better to get an actual RB.
Agreed, we should get a good youngish rb who can legitimately challenge Rafael when he is fit. Besides if (more like when
) we qualify for CL, we'd need a proper cover and not a make shift winger who is suspect with his positioning and reading of the game.No point in sticking with Valencia and Young, two makeshift 29 year olds who will be found out at the top level. They can do a job right now but we should be looking to upgrade asap. Fullbacks who can actually challenge for the first team spot and provide cover when Rafael or Shaw are injured. Full back position is arguably our weakest when it comes to depth.
I'm as big a Rafael fan as you can get but it's time to admit that his run of games a couple of years ago was the exception to the rule. He just cannot stay fit for an extended period and as a result we have to put ourselves through watching Valencia play.
A new RB is a must.
Alves will be his replacement and will give us 2 seasons. I'd rather we go for a younger player. I'd even take Coleman
City managed to get Sagna as full back cover and Chelsea got Luis so depending on Alves wages it could be a smart back up buy, of course starting Rafael as the first choice but not a bad player to have as back up, especially on a free.
Was he in the pictures for last weeks training?
Bloody hell. Fanboyism of the worst kind. Of course the club should be trying to get an alternative RB given Rafaels terrible injury record. Valencia is not a RB. If, miracle of miracles, Rafael stays fit and is clearly the better player then he'll still play. But him staying fit is not something the club can put all their faith in.
We have multiple options in midfield, CB, and striker positions. Why the hell would the club not have cover at fullback?
Did you seriously printscreen your entire desktop to get those pictures?
Well... he's using Internet Explorer...
From today!
So saturday night is done. right?
the embargoed section should have been released right? this section has news on rafael's injury right?
do we know anything about this?
the embargoed section should have been released right? this section has news on rafael's injury right?
do we know anything about this?
Do we not have any quality RB in our reserves? How has that Varela guy been doing so far?
on loan at Real Madrid Castilla with option to buy.
WTF? Why on earth would we promote an overrated, injury prone, hot head Brazillian to captain? Based on what? And we laugh at RAWK!
Ouch.
- Status