Barcelona wanted to sell him. Now he's their best player.

Wednesday night’s Champions League showdown between Barcelona and Bayern Munich certainly delivered as much entertainment as expected, though not because the game was close. Barca created huge chances through quick counter-attacks in a very un-Barca performance, winning 4-1 with 40% possession (UK highlights here, US version here).

Raphinha scored a stunning hat trick, and if you haven’t been paying close attention to Barcelona this year, that might have come as a pretty big surprise. Pro and anti-Barca papers alike spent the summer reporting that their directors would very much like to sell the Brazilian, but he was reluctant to leave. He’s often been thrown into the same conversations with his teammate Ferran Torres — two bad buys, overpriced attackers from England who haven’t delivered, and who now refuse to leave despite not being good enough.

All of this is, unfortunately, 100% true when it comes to Torres. But Raphinha has had an incredible resurgence under Hansi Flick, and might be the best attacking player in the world so far this season.

If you don’t like nerd stuff, the counting stats tell enough of a story. He has 4 goals and 1 assist in 3 Champions League games, to go along with his 5 goals and 5 assists in 10 La Liga matches. But you’re here, so you probably like the nerd stuff.

Raphinha currently leads La Liga with 0.8 xG + xA per 90 among wingers and attacking midfielders who have played 300+ minutes this season. Second place is quite a ways behind — Williot Swedberg of Celta Vigo, with 0.52. Vinicius Jr. of Real Madrid has 0.48. Raphinha is also leading the way in StatsBomb’s OBV metric.

(Swedberg will get his own post in this newsletter if he keeps it up, by the way. The 21-year-old Swede is having a breakout season and will be on the radar of just about every Premier League club now.)

Raphinha has been extremely consistent with his shooting and dribbling production across La Liga and Champions League, and he’s one of a small handful of guys who’s in the absolute top tier in both of those skills at the moment.

His shot locations are great, but I’m loving the shot types, created by both his runs off the ball and the style of play that manager Hansi Flick has implemented. Robert Lewandowski is doing a ton of dropping off the front line, and center backs are usually stepping up to keep him from getting too much space, because he’s Robert Lewandowski. This opens up a lot of space behind him to run into, and Raphinha is the man doing that running.

If you’re not familiar with these shot map charts, the triangles represent shots preceded by through balls, which are the highest value shots. For most teams, they’re pretty difficult to create, and they usually represent a small percentage of a great attacker’s shot volume. Raphinha’s got 7 of his 32 shots in La Liga off through balls, scoring 3 of his 5 goals from those high-value shots.

Raphinha’s also been great at creating shooting opportunities for his teammates, and in quite a few different ways, from two different positions. He’s been his best on the left wing, but injuries, standard rotation, and some unique to Barca player registration issues have moved him into a central attacking midfield role on a few occasions. He’s proven adept at dribbling past a fullback and hitting a cutback towards the penalty spot, or playing a forward pass into the box from a central position.

Heading into El Clásico, Raphinha presents an absolute nightmare of a matchup for Real Madrid, who are without an experienced right back at the moment. Winger Lucas Vázquez filled in against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday to disastrous effect, where he was directly responsible for both of BVB’s goals. With Dani Olmo and Gavi both resting against Bayern, but fit enough to make sub appearances, it seems likely that one of them will start in the No. 10 role while Raphinha matches up on the wing with Madrid’s makeshift right back.

It’s pretty outrageous how Raphinha has managed to go from outcast that Barca couldn’t wait to get rid of to being the most productive attacking midfielder/winger on the planet in just a couple of months. Barca’s shift away from a slower possession-based style of play to an extremely high-tempo and vertical one has benefitted him greatly.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, we’d appreciate it if you would forward it to a friend. If you’re that friend, welcome! You can subscribe to The Transfer Flow here. We also have a podcast where we go in depth on transfer news and rumours every week. We’re on YouTube here, and you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify by searching for “The Transfer Flow Podcast.”