Barcelona forward admits his lack of goals is a concern: “It hurts”

Speaking to Cadena SER (h/t SPORT), Barcelona forward Raphinha has admitted that he is not entirely pleased with the fact that he has scored just one goal since joining the club in the summer.

Raphinha was one of the marquee signings for Barça in the summer as they splashed big bucks and fought hard to beat Chelsea to his signing.

While the Brazilian started off brightly, his form has taken a sharp nosedive in recent weeks, leading to his place in the side no longer being a certainty.

In 17 matches across all competitions, the 25-year-old has scored just one goal, which came over two months ago in September against Sevilla.

While he has four assists to his name, Raphinha’s lack of productivity in the final third has reportedly raised some eyebrows within the Barcelona offices.

Now, the Brazilian international has himself admitted that he is far from happy with his goal tally, but insisted that he is going through a bit of an adaptation phase at his new club.

“On an individual level, it is a bit hard. Being a striker, I like to score and assist and I only have one goal. It hurts a bit, scoring just one goal is complicated. but my teammates are helping me and I work hard so that the adaptation is as fast as possible,” he said.

Raphinha admitted that he is very happy to be working with manager Xavi Hernandez, saying: “Very well, he was a reference as a footballer and he is trying to imprint his stamp and apply his idea and make changes.”

Despite the team’s underperformance in Europe, Raphinha is optimistic for the remainder of the season, as he said: “We always play to win and we are going to fight for all the titles.”

On being part of Gerard Pique’s farewell, the former Leeds United winger said: “It was special because it is the farewell of an idol, a reference. It is difficult not to cry at times like this, you always imagine that you will go through this one day, a farewell is always emotional.”

The forward further revealed that he and the team were in the dark about Pique’s retirement until the announcement came, saying: “We knew about Pique’s retirement when everyone else found out. We didn’t know about it, we didn’t expect it.”

Raphinha also gave his two cents about the controversies that had been created due to Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr’s dancing celebrations. Defending his compatriot, he said:

“I like that all Brazilians dance, like Vinicius. I don’t dance better than him. Ronaldinho or Neymar also danced and we don’t talk about them, we always dance.”