Raphinha

[LeStat]

Kulusevski at this moment is the better player for our team. Pretty easy to justify that because, well, he is actually on the team right now. I'll give you smarter, calmer, more composed, maybe more tactically astute.

But more talented? Raphinha has God-given ability and starts for the Brazilian national team. Come on, man.

What "god given ability"? He has what, 9 caps for Brazil? He's 25 so he's pretty much at his peak, and just returned a 11 goal 3 assist season. Good? Sure. Godly? Not even close. Even a pace merchant like Sterling returns more goals and assists every year.

I'll say it again: Kulusevski is a better, younger, more talented player than Raphinha.

 

[Timberwolf]

What "god given ability"? He has what, 9 caps for Brazil? He's 25 so he's pretty much at his peak, and just returned a 11 goal 3 assist season. Good? Sure. Godly? Not even close. Even a pace merchant like Sterling returns more goals and assists every year.

I'll say it again: Kulusevski is a better, younger, more talented player than Raphinha.

This isn't the point. We all rate Kulusevksi. But do you want Lucas playing if he gets injured? Or we have to rotate cos we have 4 games in 2 weeks. We desperately need more than 3 reliable attackers.

 

[npearl4spurs]

What "god given ability"? He has what, 9 caps for Brazil? He's 25 so he's pretty much at his peak, and just returned a 11 goal 3 assist season. Good? Sure. Godly? Not even close. Even a pace merchant like Sterling returns more goals and assists every year.

I'll say it again: Kulusevski is a better, younger, more talented player than Raphinha.

We'll agree to disagree. Watch Raphinha and watch Kulusevski side by side. Then tell me which one has more natural ability and which one has had better coaching and better teams around him. Pretty plain to see.

And of course Sterling puts up more goals and assists...he only plays for one of the three best teams in the entire world!

 

[mil1lion]

Only teams I would worry about are Barca and Chelsea but not sure either will be involved. Too much money for Barca I would think and Chelsea are supposedly after Sterling.
Not concerned by Arsenal, West Ham or Newcastle but I suppose stranger things have happened. As long as we get 1 top quality forward I'm happy either way and it sounds like we have a choice of about 5.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Damn there’s some weird shit being said in this thread.

 

[Snarfalicious]

What "god given ability"? He has what, 9 caps for Brazil? He's 25 so he's pretty much at his peak, and just returned a 11 goal 3 assist season. Good? Sure. Godly? Not even close. Even a pace merchant like Sterling returns more goals and assists every year.

I'll say it again: Kulusevski is a better, younger, more talented player than Raphinha.

I, too, hate having great depth. Give me the Bergwijn/Lucas serviceable-in-a-pinch-but-not-for-long depth, but not great depth. Hate it.

 

[GetKaned]

This isn't the point. We all rate Kulusevksi. But do you want Lucas playing if he gets injured? Or we have to rotate cos we have 4 games in 2 weeks. We desperately need more than 3 reliable attackers.

In his world we need to prioritise CM spot because Bissouma goes down. But apparently RW spot is secondary because Kane Son and Kulusevski are world class and already settled. Apparently they are gonna have an injury free and fatigue free season.

 

[felmani26]

I'd like to think Kulusevski would relish the competition and indeed having Raphinha there should push him on even more.

It's a win/win.

 

[mattspur1986]

I didn't see your post, so wasn't specifically aimed at you. Just a general observation for a lot of our fans on Social media

you quoted my post ? but all is good ??

 

[LeStat]

The case is same if Davies goes down. Or even Kulusevski goes down. The next person to deputise there will be a massive downgrade at the moment. You cant always do deals in linear fashion where you first fill one gap and only then move to next.

Again: improving the starting 11 should take precedence over depth alone.
Lucas is also still comically underrated by Spurs fans. He's a good, experienced winger who's always given us some zest when called upon. I'm much more comfortable with him as a rotation/backup than I am with Hojbjerg starting most games, when he's shown on several occasions that he struggles to deal with hard pressing.

 

[GetKaned]

I am pretty sure Levy, Paratici and Conte has far far more stakes in the success of the club than us lot in this chat and they seems to not worried about most of the concerns being thrown around here.

 

[Timberwolf]

Again: improving the starting 11 should take precedence over depth alone.
Lucas is also still comically underrated by Spurs fans. He's a good, experienced winger who's always given us some zest when called upon. I'm much more comfortable with him as a rotation/backup than I am with Hojbjerg starting most games, when he's shown on several occasions that he struggles to deal with hard pressing.

Well we can't improve on Kane and Son, while Kulu is amazing as you've repeatedly stated, so what do you suggest? Leave it at that and not strengthen our attack?

 

[Snarfalicious]

Also, I think we all hold Deki in incredibly high regard. But, we've seen some players take the league by storm and they even out over time. This isn't to say I think Deki had a bit of a false dawn season, but to expect him to keep up that rate of production over the entire season is likely unreasonable. Raphinha is going to get the best out of both Son and Deki, which is what we have to have if we want to be successful beyond just Top 4. There's going to be no ability to rest on laurels, and if they do, whoever is the odd-man-out will be ready to step in and take their chance. Gone should be the days of trying to find players to fill out numbers in the squad. We've heard we are ready to eat at the big boys table, so we need to do what they do and build out a squad that if our star RWF/LWF goes down, we aren't going to skip a beat.

 

[jpascavitz]

Not going at anyone personally but I'm so over the debate of who should start, I really don't even consider it anymore. Look at Liverpool and City's stats last season and that's all you need to know. Conte is the type of manager that could play Kulu against one side, Raphinha against another, and then both if we're chasing a game with Kulu at WB for all we know since he's said he can play there.

All comps for forward positions only, no ST:

liverpool - Salah (31G/15A in 51 played), Mane (23G/2A in 51 played), Jota (21G/6A in 55 played), Minamino (10G/1A in 24 played), Diaz (6G/4A in 26 played), Elliott (1 G/0A in 11 played) = 92G & 28A

City - Mahrez (24G/9A in 47 played), Sterling (17G/8A in 47 played), Foden (14G/11A in 45 played), Jesus (13G/11A in 41 played), Grealish (6G/4A in 39 played) = 74G & 43 A

Spurs - Son (24G/8A in 44 played), Lucas (6G/8A in 44 played), Kulu (5G/8A in 20 played), Bergwijn (4G/1A in 31 played) = 39G & 25A

Yes we play a little different with bulk of goals coming from Kane as well, but City added haaland and will replace Sterling if he goes, Liverpool replaces Mane with Nunez. At the end of the day that's one important reason why they're competing across 4 comps and we are not.

So yes, I am interested in Raphinha's 11G/3A under Conte with UCL added in

 

[ronzalo]

I'm not convinced Raphinha is the 'right' signing. I would have thought the best purchase would be to buy someone who can play across the front-line, and hold their own to a decent level through the middle. It seems like he's very much an inverted right winger, and we already have a player who performs a very similar role, very well, albeit with slightly different traits.

 

[GetKaned]

Again: improving the starting 11 should take precedence over depth alone.
Lucas is also still comically underrated by Spurs fans. He's a good, experienced winger who's always given us some zest when called upon. I'm much more comfortable with him as a rotation/backup than I am with Hojbjerg starting most games, when he's shown on several occasions that he struggles to deal with hard pressing.

Are you looking for an upgrade on Bentancur or a better cover than Hojberg here ?

 

[Hotspur_Hero]

Raphinha wouldnt be depth, he would start most games

Love Kulu but people are treating him like hes irreplaceable at RW

I like the idea of signing Raphinha, but I think a lot of folks are really overrating him/underrating Kulu.

Last season Deki had 13 goal contributions in 18 games (5 g +8 a). Raphinha had 14 in 35 games (11 g + 3 a). Sure Deki played in a better squad with better players, but his contribution last year was immense. For context: Son - 0.91 g+a/game, Kane - 0.7 g+a/game, Deki - 0.72 g+a/game, and Raphinha - 0.4 g+a/game. Deki's stats put him up there with Kane and Son. Raphinha will have to be incredible to do better than that.

At the end of the day, we need depth. We need to get out of the starting 11 mindset and into the squad mindset. We need the ability to rotate players without losing a step. Raphinha will help with that. But Deki was pretty darn irreplacable last season.

 

[LeStat]

Kulusevski can't be called world class yet. He's been here for 6 months. Let's see him do 10+ goals and 10+ assists next year and keep Raphinha/another forward signing out of the starting 11.

That's your opinion. He's already well credentialed enough to cost us £9m or whatever as a loan fee with a £33m option to buy.

But we just made a big midfield signing in Bissouma

So? It's not enough. Hojbjerg is still probably a starting 11 player right now, he's nowhere near good enough for a team challenging for titles.

 

[AssaTM]

Do not underestimate peoples bitter, twisted desire to be able to say "I told you so" rather than relish the beauty of the situation in that, no matter what happens, there will be other players - life does go on, and how beautiful is it the biggest worry you have right now is hitting f5 on a forum to find out if a multi millionaire is going to your club or someone elses? Just enjoy the ride and take life a little less seriously

 

[dg8672]

Here in the States, I'm used to chatter over the 'starting 11' when talking about American Football, as the bench players are almost always a marked step down, but if Spurs are going to compete against the likes of Liverpool and City, this kind of thinking cannot persist.

Whether you think Raphinha or Kulu is the better player is almost irrelevant to the discussion at this moment because AC and FP both clearly believe that we need top tier options beyond who actually starts the matches on the pitch.

With CL, Cups, and the World Cup in the middle of the season, PLUS the change to 5 subs, having quality in the wings waiting to come in isn't just a luxury anymore, its a bonafide necessity.

If the powers that be have targeted Raphinha as someone who can add to our attacking rotation and keep it from dropping a noticible notch when one of our "starting 3" of Kane / Son / Kulu are not in the game, then by all means, you push hard to get it done. And it appears we are doing so.

It's a new way of thinking for Spurs, and I'm happy to see it.