Is he really that good? don't know much about him. Is he better than what Marcelinho (Hertha) was?
His age is catching up to him now as he had an even slower start than usual, but he's been a really special player since settling in gladbach and his return to form has been one of the drivers behind gladbach's recent charge back up the table...where they would've taken over 2nd if they hadn't s*** the bed in wolfsburg on the weekend.
He's a very odd bird who was never able to get comfortable amongst the hustle & bustle of Berlin or Gelsenkirchen, which is why he turns down Dortmund's overtures when they try to poach him from BMG every summer. But he's been a huge part of gladbach's renaissance and is the single biggest reason why they have been so utterly clinical in the box that advanced stats just don't work on them. They've consistently defied expected-goals and other newer metrics by a wide margin for years; to the point where it's widely accepted by the german stats nerds that that club will be an outlier for all such models that they are trying to develop. And the way BMG's efficiency shoots back to the mortal realm when he's absent is almost as pronounced.
Marcelinho was more of a midfielder who loved to get forward while Raffael is a natural forward who can drop deeper; so the comparison is a little tricky, but having acknowledged that, yes...Raffael is a perennial slow starter, but once he gets into form he has consistently performed at a level above Marcelinho's best. Marcelinho made me genuinely root for Hertha despite being an Union fan (they are not our Berlin rivals, but they're still a wessi team that no one usually cares much about) and was a ton of fun; but he wasn't as spectacular and his influence on the league at large wasn't as great. Raffael's control & passing in tight spaces is simply world class; even in a crowd of legs in the box he can weave his way out of trouble to slip the ball to a clever team mate or past the keeper.
I don't think he has the legs to go play a NT tourney after a long season anymore; but his non-selection in 2014 was a crime. Firmino is a greater athlete with more size, who I loved watching team up with Volland during his time in germany; but he dreams of having Raffael's touch & control.