Barcelona winger Raphinha has been one of the biggest breakout superstars of the 2024/25 season in world football, outshining more hyped Real Madrid counterparts Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe to become a legitimate Ballon d’Or candidate thus far.
Raphinha has to share the spotlight with Robert Lewandowski and right wing phenom Lamine Yamal, but the Brazilian is in the prime of his career and has been, in the eyes of many pundits, the best player on Barcelona this season under Hansi Flick.
In truth, Raphinha was pretty good under Xavi, too, playing a key role in the team upon his immediate arrival from Leeds as Barcelona won the 2022/23 La Liga title.
Despite losing his starting job to the best prospect in world football, Yamal, Raphinha still did well in the 2023/24 season, too, scoring six goals with nine assists for the Blaugrana.
But the 27-year-old has been truly unreal this season, scoring 6 goals and 6 assists already in 11 starts with a stunning 3.5 key passes per game, making him one of the best playmakers in the world right now.
Raphinha isn’t one for taking shots, but he’s clearly been more confident, more productive, and utilized better under Flick than he was under Xavi; there are clearly levels between these two coaches.
Speaking to El Pais, Raphinha was candid about one thing Xavi did that frustrated him, and it was part of a larger problem Barcelona fans noticed about their manager not making actual decisions during games and simply going on autopilot mode:
“Not to criticize, but with Xavi, I already knew that I was going to be subbed off in the 60th minute. I tried to do everything in those 60 minutes, but nothing worked out. And other times, when things did work, I was taken off anyway.”
Xavi was obviously learning on the job, but it was still troubling how much he phoned in his gameplans. The man would rarely make adjustments at the half, and, as Raphinha points out, he didn’t seem to even think about his subs.
Although Xavi helped Barcelona a lot from the Ronald Koeman days, bringing the team back to the top of the league in 2022/23, he didn’t know how to maximize his players and often alienated them.
One of the smartest players of his time, Xavi was bafflingly slow to make decisions, or he simply took any thinking out of the equation by doing stuff like this, which made his players tone down their own performances, too.
