The Renaissance of Rafael: Lyon’s Swashbuckling Full-Back
It’s the 12th of September 2015. Lyon are playing Lille at the Gerland and struggling to break down the well-organised visitors. As the minutes tick away the home fans are becoming increasingly restless. Can the deadlock be broken? Can someone nick the points for Les Gones?
Come the 65th minute Hubert Fournier decides to make a change. The fourth official raises his board, number 13, Christophe Jallet, was summoned to the bench and taking his place the man wearing 20, Rafael da Silva.
Ordinarily, swapping one fullback for another shouldn’t elicit any excitement whatsoever but then again Rafael is not your run-of-the-mill plodder.
In that 25-minute cameo he demonstrated why he gets the fans onside whilst at the same time showing the tendencies that infuriated Louis van Gaal and David Moyes.
Rafael, despite being a right back (and latterly left back under Fournier) can be an attacking tyro. In one instance against Lille he wandered from his position and found himself in the number 10 role as Lyon were searching for that elusive goal.
The Brazilian is an instinctive gambler willing to take risks in search of greater rewards. That’s why van Gaal and Moyes didn’t trust him and the reason that Sir Alex Ferguson picked him.
He nearly stole the points for Lyon against Lille in the 89th minute when his glancing header from a Mathieu Valbuena free kick hit the right hand upright and agonizingly bounced out. What was a fullback doing in the opponent’s box in the last minute of the game anyway? Had Lille cleared the ball then a counter-attack was on. But then again caution is not something that comes naturally to Lyon’s summer signing from Old Trafford.
Rafael, like any Brazilian footballer worth their salt, has the ability to thrill and provide moments of magic. What really endears him to the faithful is not just his ability but his bravery. He’s never been one to back down from a confrontation and his fearless playing style invariably curries favour with supporters.
Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t fit in with the safety-first mentality of Moyes or the pragmatic ‘philosophy’ of Louis van Gaal but at Lyon, a team built to play on the front foot, the Brazilian may have found a home where his swashbuckling style is celebrated rather than clamped down upon.
And right now Lyon could do with all the cutting edge they can get. 15 goals in 11 Ligue 1 games, four of which came against Caen, and another three against Toulouse, tells its own story. Les Gones have scored two or more in only three matches out of 14 in all competitions. Alexandre Lacazette is misfiring, Claudio Beauvue hasn’t made the desired impression yet, and of course the loss of Nabil Fekir due to injury has had a massive effect on Lyon’s fortunes, blunting the attack of last year’s runner-up.
The state of affairs is such that Rafael, who coolly equalized for his new club against Monaco, is only one goal behind Lacazette in the Ligue 1 goal scoring charts.
Of course no one is expecting Rafael to shoulder the goal-scoring burden but in a side that plays its best football when they’re being positive the Brazilian is a useful presence to have on the pitch.
Lyon have yet to click into gear and are lacking in incisiveness even with Valbuena pulling the strings. What Rafael offers down either flank is a genuine attacking threat, more so than Henri Bedimo, Jérémy Morel and arguably Christophe Jallet. The Brazilian also has age on his side as his counterparts are the wrong side of 30.
Fournier’s favoured system, the 4-4-2 diamond, gives the Brazilian added impetus to get forward at every opportunity as the fullbacks are the only players in this system who can provide natural width. His dynamism could prove to be key if Lyon want to stretch their opponents.
Surely, a fullback needs to defend as well, right? That’s a given but perhaps Rafael’s reputation, certainly in England, has painted an unfair picture of him. He may be impetuous but his disciplinary record is not exactly a roll of shame either, with his last red card in all competitions coming against Chelsea in May 2013. In Ferguson’s final season Rafael was a solid member of the United backline, even keeping Cristiano Ronaldo quiet over two legs when the Old Trafford club faced Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Perhaps his biggest strength is also his Achilles heel. Rafael’s bravery sees him put his body on the line for the sake of the team. This in turn has taken its toll on the player. He’s already missed a part of Lyon’s campaign because of a thigh injury. In the past three years the Brazilian has suffered no fewer than 16 injuries which has seen him miss significant chunks of the last few seasons.
There are those who point to his tendency to switch off in games. Most memorably, it was his slack pass that led to Mexico’s opening goal in the gold medal match in the 2012 Olympics. In his club career he was frequently singled out for criticism for being out of position and reacting rashly as a result of his tactical indiscipline, United’s 5-3 defeat at Leicester a case in point.
The obvious criticism is that Rafael is unable to change his game and play in a cannier manner. To an extent that is true as his football setting seems permanently switched to ‘Tasmanian Devil’ mode. The Tasmanian Devil of the Looney Tunes persuasion of course. As cliched as it sounds, if you take the devilry away from Rafael’s game you do get a reduced player.
Rafael is a bit of a maverick. He can score outrageous goals, bomb down the wing like a whippet on speed, outjump giant strikers (Andy Carroll, I’m looking at you) and is as brave as they come.
He is a genuinely exciting figure to watch with an infectious enthusiasm for the game. Lyon could do with him (and others) sparking to kick-start their season.
Whatever happens for Les Gones this season, life on the pitch won’t be dull with Rafael on it.