Alisson and Ederson may be two of the big stars in English football these days, but there’s another Brazilian goalkeeper who had better stats than them at the start of this season.
Rafael Cabral has only conceded one goal in the three matches played by Reading in the Championship so far, and has been helping the Royals to stay on top of the table.
The 30-year-old has spoken to Lance about his great form, and also spoke about the club’s transfer window being very good at improving the squad from last season.
“We had a lot of inconsistency, good moments, with consecutive victories and others without points. Our team had a makeover, as about 10 players from last year’s squad ended their contracts,” Rafael told Lance.
“The team has been training well and we have to be more consistent, always score. In my team, there are six, seven players from national teams.”
Rafael Cabral also talked about the change of managers, claiming there’s been a big difference between the work of Mark Bowen and Veljko Paunović.
“Our coach was English and their mentality is long ball, second ball, sometimes they don’t like to come out from behind. Now we have a very tactical coach, who likes to play nice, with the ball at our feet, playing fast. Our team has a lot of quality and we have everything to play better. I am grateful to Mark Bowen. The mindset is different.”
On Reading’s chances of getting promotion to the Premier League, Rafael said: “Teams that descend from the Premier League are favourites to be promoted again, but the Championship is very difficult. A team that was doing well last year, can fight against relegation, the scores are very close. It all depends on the season and starting well makes all the difference.”
Regarding his future, the player claims he had the chance to leave the club this summer, but plans to stay in English football.
“We have some possibilities. I’m calm and happy. My goal is to have the best performances possible and live big things in football. If I stay at Reading, the goal will be to move up to the Premier League. English football is the best in the world. I had some possibilities to go out, but I want to stay in England.”
Rafael joined Reading on a free transfer from Sampdoria last summer, and has a contract with the club until 2022. He has 49 appearances for the Royals so far.
