The Brazilian 'alternative' to the striker issue

I've written about his German teammate, Max Kruse, already, but Borussia Möchengladbach's other offensive weapon, Brazilian forward Raffael, deserves a look as well.  In 34 appearances, he scored 15 goals and assisted on 7 more in the Bundesliga last season.  None of those were penalties, giving him a 0.45 goal per 90 minute average and a goal creation rate of 0.66 per 90.  His most impressive stat though is his take-on rate of 5.1 successful dribbles per 90 at a 68.7% efficiency.

The Fortaleza, Brazil native came to Europe in the summer of 2005, joining FC Zürich of the Swiss Super League.  His impact was instant as he helped lead his new club to back-to-back league titles, scoring 40 goals and dishing out 20 assists in 70 appearances, nearly a goal created per match.  He would leave Switzerland for Hertha BSC in the January 2008 transfer window for £3.8m.

His stay in Berlin was not as fruitful.  In his four-and-a-half seasons there, he scored just 33 goals with 29 assists in 140 appearances, and twice his club suffered relegation.  After the second relegation, he transferred to Dynamo Kyiv for £8m, but continued his poor form, lasting only half a campaign where he scored just once in 9 league appearances before being loaned to Schalke in January 2013.

Though he made just 16 appearances for Gelsenkirchen club, his performance accented by a goals created per 90 average of 0.79 and a chance created per 90 of 2.71 was enough to earn him a transfer to Gladbach last summer.  His pace, quick feet, and positioning make him a threat to score nearly every time his club have the ball in the opponent's third.  He is also a solid passer, posting an 83.7% pass completion rate and creating 2.1 chances per 90 the last five seasons.

The negatives of signing Raffael are that he is 29-years-old and I doubt he would come cheap coming off his somewhat sensational season.  Gladbach really want to keep the squad together so they can have a shot at Champions League qualification, so prying a major contributor to that goal would be costly.  He did just turn 29 and probably has a couple of seasons left in him, but I'm unsure how the wear and tear of the Prem would effect him.  At this point though, we need competent bodies and Raffael would be a solid add in that regard.

The goal Andriy Voronin scored for the Ukraine today

Nothing spectacular, but our only player to manage to score today. Oh yeah, there's a commercial before hand? Cheers.

Andriy Voronin's international career may be over

Well aside from Ukraine boss Oleg Blokhin taking some cheap shots at our boy, which I'll get to in a minute, Andriy Voronin, the bard arse striker we got on a free transfer from Leverkusen this past summer did not take kindly to his International manager's words late in his country's 2-1 loss to Italy yesterday. Voronin assessed the situation which led to a toe-to-toe confrontation by saying that his coach patronized him which was something that he as a man was not going to stand for.

Blokhin sounds like a real idiot to me and if Voronin never plays another match under the clown, you know I won't shed a tear. After the match, the Ukrainian manager had some alarmingly unprofessional things to say about his player. It was almost as if he was trying to pass the blame of the loss and his country's dire chances of qualifying for the Euro onto Voronin.

He basically called the player unfit, said he weakened the squad when he was on the pitch and was the reason that Italy scored their second goal. That's funny, a striker is the reason the other team scoring? What? Was he playing behind the midfielders and defenders? That's ridiculous.

I, for one, could care less. Voronin isn't getting any younger and at 28, doesn't have many years of top level ball left in him, so if he never plays for his country again, all for the better. The fact that he didn't even start against Italy should be enough to tell him that he's not really wanted there anyhow. I can understand Shevchenko starting in front of him, but not anyone else including Andriy Vorobei nor Oleksiy Byelik. The less he plays for his country, the more likely he'll be fit for us, which is why I expect him to play Saturday.