Rafael

He'll be world class in ten years that's for sure.

He'll be 28, which probably means you're right.

He's very good now, and going to be a top player in a few years, if not world class.
 
He'll be 28, which probably means you're right.

He's still going to be a top player in a few years mind, if not world class.

Barring injury and the usual off-field issues, I can't see anything that will stop him from going beyond the peaks set by Evra. He will be a top player once he is defensively consistent and has he is playing quite regularly I reckon that will be soon enough.
 
He'll be 28, which probably means you're right.

He's very good now, and going to be a top player in a few years, if not world class.

What happens in three years when he is 21 and wants to feck off to Madrid?

Will you promise not to do more than tolerate him ever ever ever, go off and stand in the corner in a strop, and then carry on as normal when he ends up staying?
 
What happens in three years when he is 21 and wants to feck off to Madrid?

Will you promise not to do more than tolerate him ever ever ever, go off and stand in the corner in a strop, and then carry on as normal when he ends up staying?

Has he been having dreams?
 
For all that he is great at attacking and very good defensively in one-on-ones, a lot of Blackburn's attacking threat came from his side of the pitch. He needs to work on positioning and definitely suffered for not having a Carrick in the middle to sit in for him when he goes walkabout.

For all people whinge about O'Shea, virtually nothing went down that side for Blackburn.
 
For all that he is great at attacking and very good defensively in one-on-ones, a lot of Blackburn's attacking threat came from his side of the pitch. He needs to work on positioning and definitely suffered for not having a Carrick in the middle to sit in for him when he goes walkabout.

For all people whinge about O'Shea, virtually nothing went down that side for Blackburn.

That could have to do with the quality of player he was facing

Wouldn't know tbh, only saw a few bits of the game.
 
For all that he is great at attacking and very good defensively in one-on-ones, a lot of Blackburn's attacking threat came from his side of the pitch. He needs to work on positioning and definitely suffered for not having a Carrick in the middle to sit in for him when he goes walkabout.

For all people whinge about O'Shea, virtually nothing went down that side for Blackburn.

FFS! - i'm tired of people harping on about his defensive game.

when was the last time you saw an accomplished defender at 18? esp one who has an attacking mentality as well. in time, the boy will learn balance.
 
FFS! - i'm tired of people harping on about his defensive game.

when was the last time you saw an accomplished defender at 18? esp one who has an attacking mentality as well. in time, the boy will learn balance.

But people calling for him to be first choice are clearly ignoring the fact that he has no sort of defensive responsibility and he's often caught out of position.

Ignore his age. That's what you do when you're talking about playing in the first team now, you just weigh up the good with the bad. Rafael's not as good as Brown yet.
 
But people calling for him to be first choice are clearly ignoring the fact that he has no sort of defensive responsibility and he's often caught out of position.

Ignore his age. That's what you do when you're talking about playing in the first team now, you just weigh up the good with the bad. Rafael's not as good as Brown yet.

Rafael gives us better attacking options than Wes, and would be my first choice when facing relatively weak teams wanting just to defend. However Brown would be the obvious choice against tough teams playing with a good winger where Browns defensive qualities are obviously superior.

The bottom line is we now have varied options at right back.
 
This guy is the real deal ,actually thought His full back play overshadowed evra's today which is no mean feat.Looks to have a wise head on His shoulders and a very good delivery,gives us that edge and quickness from the right side we haven't had since neville was in His pomp supporting play.
 
This guy is the real deal ,actually thought His full back play overshadowed evra's today which is no mean feat.Looks to have a wise head on His shoulders and a very good delivery,gives us that edge and quickness from the right side we haven't had since neville was in His pomp supporting play.
I think they kind of underestimated Rafael today - Evra was doubly-marked, while Rafael sort of always managed to have acres of space. I think it could be because Rafael doesn't stay up front while Evra was always there, leaving Anderson and Ferdinand to cover the full-back area. Easy pickings, sort of.
 
had another very good game, apart from getting skinned by Diouf late on, he was flawless from the stream I was watching. He should be starting against the weaker teams that tend to just park the buss in front of their net, although he didn't look out of place last week at Eastlands nor did he at the emirates when he came on to show us how it's done...
 
If Fabio is as good as Rafael, which he should be by all accounts, then we've got two gems on our hands :drool:
 
One of the few real positives of this season so far. He's been a revelation to be fair. He's brought a new hunger to the team and I hope it rubs off on some of our other players. Can't wait to see Fabio start as well!
 
I think they kind of underestimated Rafael today - Evra was doubly-marked, while Rafael sort of always managed to have acres of space. I think it could be because Rafael doesn't stay up front while Evra was always there, leaving Anderson and Ferdinand to cover the full-back area. Easy pickings, sort of.
yeah agree they had ten players back nearly the whole game and evra being the threat He is with ronaldo they maybe concentrated more the left hand side.That being said Rafael supported very well and put in some decent whipped crosses and a driven low cut back cross which was intelligent and maybe we should have scored from.Overall He has shown that He has the ability to provide quality if needed and Should be a starter imo with brown out and neville getting on.
 
His crossing was probably the best of any of our players today. That ball to Giggs was brilliant!
 
Bags of potential, but there's plenty of room for improvement too. His defensive game is still patchy, and he has a tendency to dive in. He will grow out of that though, IMO, and we'll hopefully be left with a cracking full-back. It's not a certainty yet though.

And for what it's worth, I don't think he's done enough to be first choice. Yet. He will still make mistakes, so it's important we give him the sort of games that will allow him to develop, and not get too much of a chasing from better sides.
 
Still yet to concede a goal with him playing in the league. Superb player.
 
Let's be honest here fellows. Who actually thought the two full-back twins we were getting from Brazil were actually going to turn out good? And never in my wildest dreams did I imagine they, or at least Rafael, would turn out this good. From here it's not a huge stretch to imagine Rafael and Fabio on each side in a few years.
 
Hes a real find, still very raw and has alot to learn but he will only get better which is exciting. his crossing could be a real asset to us that will improve aswell and become one of his main weapons. bring on fabio, cant wait.
 
Can you imagine if Fabio turns out to be better than Rafael?

Lets hope they don't dream of playing in Spain
 
Had to giggle when he tried those stepovers today. Not quite there yet son. Other than that he's absolute class. A joy to watch. Not many players are a joy to watch. He made one through pass today, can't remember to who but I gasped........don't often gasp.
If Fabio is near as good then we've got a feast to come.
 
just love watching him play. We've all said over the past couple of seasons that if we had an Evra on the right, we would absolutely tear defenses apart. This kid certainly has the potential to be that.

He did get skinned once and did dive in dangerously a couple of times, but for an 18 year old after a year long break from real football, his potential is scary.