Barcelona's great dilemma with Raphinha

• 0-1 in Montilivi Pedri helps Barcelona

• Copa del Rey El clásico, in the semifinals

He inhabits the dichotomy in

(Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1996).

In Montilivi, where

fell , and where the most prosaic Barcelona repeated the victory by a hair's breadth, the Brazilian winger deepened his contradictions.

He got tangled up, slipped, fumbled (up to 24), managed a dribble (he was the only one who tried), but also stole the ball in a corner that led to the winning goal.

«It is that perhaps the problem with Raphinha is the expectations, but you have to give her time to settle.

He is a footballer who we know that he wants to succeed here and that he is working hard to achieve it, "they admit from one of the Camp Nou offices.

Although there are also those who suspect in the entity that theirs is not only a matter of time;

and that next summer, with Barcelona trapped in the labyrinth of LaLiga

-it should reduce its salary mass between 150 and 200 million euros-, it will be necessary to analyze in depth not only the performance of the attacker, but also the need.

Barcelona, ​​which has still been unable to formalize

's first team file - "they are technical issues of little importance," according to soccer director

- will lose some 100 million euros in income on its move to the Olympic stadium de Montjuïc for the works in the Camp Nou.

Appreciated in the locker room

The high price for which the Barça club agreed last summer with Leeds to sign Raphinha despite the continuity of Dembélé -around 58 million euros plus another seven in variables, without ever revealing the commissions paid to

, his representative-, and the high amortization pending for a contract until 2027 make a profitable sale operation extremely difficult.

The sports management of Barcelona, ​​yes, could always try to correspond to

- a coach who assumes more than decides - by recruiting the Belgian

, for whom the Barça leaders agreed on a surprising purchase option of less than 20 million euros in the sale operation of

to Atlético.

Raphinha is a valued player in a locker room that values ​​his calm demeanor as he faces the final stretch of his partner's pregnancy.

He also shows, both in training and in games, a defensive sacrifice shaped in the times when

made him understand that the individual had to submit to the collective.

But to the extreme, who lived through a disappointing World Cup with Brazil despite the confidence provided by

, a tough test awaits him now that Dembélé has at least five weeks in the infirmary awaiting him.

Time in which Barcelona, ​​beyond reaffirming itself in the League and dreaming of returning to a Cup final, will have to save the Europa League tie against Manchester United.

A revalidation that

will also have to go through , another of the questioned footballers.

Questioned in the Champions League

Raphinha was always clear that where she can perform best is on the far right, where Dembélé had hinted at a splendid future, although once again interrupted.

Both Raphinha and Dembélé have added the same number of assists this season -seven, although the Brazilian has played 518 minutes less-.

As for the goals, yes, the Frenchman has scored twice (eight to the four of the former Leeds attacker), Raphinha, in fact, has only been able to score two goals in the League (Sevilla and Osasuna) and another two in the Copa del Rey (Intercity and Ceuta).

In the Champions League, on the other hand, he did not see the goal and his role was questioned in the collapses against Inter and Bayern.

Although little can be taught to Raphinha about the difficulties of life when he himself grew up among the waste of the Restringa neighborhood, a place where the most humble families of Porto Alegre were deported in the mid-1960s.

So they wouldn't get in the way.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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