Raphinha is not waiting for Barcelona to sign a centre-forward. He is simply becoming one. The Raphinha Barcelona No 9 experiment led the line again as the Blaugrana opened their home season against Athletic Club at the Spotify Camp Nou on Thursday night, and the captain was the man who broke the deadlock — a goal that took him to three in two La Liga games and level at the top of the scoring charts.
It is early, and one first half settles nothing. But the shape of Hansi Flick’s season is starting to show, and the shape of it is a Brazilian winger who keeps drifting into the middle and refusing to leave.
How Raphinha’s goal against Athletic came about
The warning arrived on 25 minutes. Xavi Espart, wearing the number 12 for the first time after his promotion to the first team, delivered from the left and Raphinha met it with a header that came back off the post.
Thirteen minutes later he made it count. Pedri, who had already had a goal ruled out for a Lamine Yamal offside, slid a pass in behind the Athletic back line; Raphinha ran onto it inside the box, took the ball around Unai Simon and finished with his right foot to make it 1-0, as reported by Mundo Deportivo. The same paper’s half-time player ratings called him “imposing” — a centre-forward’s goal, and a centre-forward’s night, without any drop-off in the pressing work Flick asks of him first.
Three goals in two games
Add the strike to the brace he scored in the 5-0 win away at Elche on the opening weekend and Raphinha has three goals from Barcelona’s first two league outings. Per Mundo Deportivo, that leaves him level as La Liga’s top scorer with Kylian Mbappe, who took a hat-trick off Real Sociedad at the Bernabeu on Wednesday.
For a player handed the armband this summer, it is a fairly emphatic way to start. Raphinha’s appointment as captain was framed as a reward for what he gives the group off the ball as much as on it. Nobody suggested he would also be the club’s leading scorer by the end of August.
Why the Raphinha Barcelona No 9 plan keeps getting picked
The reason is not complicated. Barcelona have not replaced Robert Lewandowski, who left on a free transfer this summer, and the search for a specialist centre-forward has run into a wall — the club’s pursuit of Julian Alvarez has collapsed into an open institutional row with Atletico Madrid, with the Spanish window closing on Monday.
So Flick has improvised, and the improvisation is working. Against Athletic he named Joan Garcia in goal behind Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi, Gerard Martin and Espart, with Marc Bernal and Pedri in midfield and Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez and summer signing Anthony Gordon around Raphinha. Gordon, who has also been used through the middle since his move from Newcastle, started wide on his first home appearance and found space harder to come by than he did at Elche.
What he brings to the role is not a target man’s game. It is movement in behind, a willingness to attack the far post, and the first line of the press. Pedri’s pass for the goal only exists because Raphinha was already running.
A problem Barca may not need to solve
None of this means the club will stop looking for a striker; a squad chasing La Liga and a Champions League league phase that includes Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City needs more than one answer up front. Raphinha’s goal record from wide areas over the past two seasons has been exceptional, and there is a fair argument that Barcelona are burning their best creator by using him as a finisher.
For now, though, the captain is doing the job nobody was signed to do, and doing it well enough that the question is starting to change. It is no longer whether Raphinha can play as Barcelona’s No 9. It is whether Flick still needs anybody else to.
Sources: Mundo Deportivo, Mundo Deportivo player ratings and Barca Blaugranes.
