finneh
Full Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2010
- Messages
- 7,318
Most opposition fans didn't rate him for the same reason they didn't rate De Gea until the evidence was so strong to the contrary that only an idiot could not rate him. Lazy statements that were dealt to De Gea years after they stopped being true "can't deal with crosses", or "gets muscled out easily", just like the lazy statements against Rafael "red card waiting to happen", or "he's one brain fart from costing you the game". Unfortunately most opposition fans don't rate a (particularly young) player until they become consistently good for a lengthy period of time, so as to completely dispel any negative statements.The complete opposite is true. Was hyped up by most people on here as the best right back in the league but the vast majority of opposition fans didn't rate him at all. I would struggle to think of any player in our squad more regularly and persistently over-rated by his own fans. And that's coming from someone who really liked him as a player.
Likewise this is the case with the "experts" on TV, who spout aged nonsense as a substitute for their inability to be insightful. The same pundits were championing Valencia as "Mr Reliable who'll always give you 7/10" even when he was deep into an absolutely horrendous period of 3/10 performances week in, week out (before being turned into a RB).
Rafael completely dispelled the negative tags that were associated with him as a young player (that he was anything other than a great full back) by the end of the 12/13 season, where alongside Carrick he was our second best player (after RVP) and alongside Zabaleta was the best RB in the League. Anyone that watched him throughout that season could say nothing about him other than that injuries have halted his progress as a potentially World Class right back.