João Palhinha - Sporting Lisbon

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Danillaco

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Recently I was watching Portugal play, and this guy was the CDM. Tall, strong and actually fast considering his size, with a good passing range.

Went and did a little research, and was quite pleased. With the talk about Neves to United, this guy is being touted as his replacement, even though he's two years older.

Got to admit, would very much worth a look, especially him being a regular for Portugal and Sporting in the Champions League against the likes of Ajax and Dortmund.

The price of about less than 30 million makes it even better.

Scouting experts and Lisbon supporters, what do you guys think?
 

fluxx

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Have watched him play a few times for sporting. Guy is awesome and I´m surprised no giants have been in for him
 

Rozay

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Love him from what I’ve seen of him. He impressed me in the Euros too.
 

DWelbz19

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Can’t pretend to have ever seen him in anything other than the Euros but it’s these types of midfielders I hope our scouting team/coaching staff are watching and making judgment calls on — a 26 year holding midfielder who is becoming a regular for his national team, season after playing a key role at his club whilst winning his first league title.
 

Santos J

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Surprised nobody was really in for him this summer, he's fecking quality. Wins the ball back so often and seems really suited to the Prem too, think he'll get a big move next summer, hopefully we're paying close attention.
 

arthurka

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Wrote about him in the thread for the match against Ireland, he looks great and has all the attributes as a CDM in the PL.
Hope we are looking at him instead of splashing 100m on Rice.
 

TsuWave

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Doesn’t pass the name test. Can’t be buying a player with a dripless and sauceless name like that
 

Rozay

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Sporting?

Sign them all! Still gutted we didn’t go in for Nuno Mendes and loan him back.

their academy is the nuts.
We could no way justify to committing the required funds on a young LB at this time, but Mendes is a top talent. Just not for us at this time. He was too young to buy for the job we wanted Telles to so last summer, and too expensive to justify as a supplementary purchase. He’s quality though.
 

Peyroteo

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70% of the world is covered by water, the rest by João Palhinha :drool:

He’s a beast defensively. Had some technical limitations but has vastly improved that part of his game. He’s very similar to Rice.
 

Ali Dia

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We could no way justify to committing the required funds on a young LB at this time, but Mendes is a top talent. Just not for us at this time. He was too young to buy for the job we wanted Telles to so last summer, and too expensive to justify as a supplementary purchase. He’s quality though.
yeah I agree. PSG have got one of the best young players in Europe. He could easily become dominant in the next few years. He’s in a good league to develop to be fair. Expecting there to be plenty of noise soon
 

MadMike

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70% of the world is covered by water, the rest by João Palhinha :drool:

He’s a beast defensively. Had some technical limitations but has vastly improved that part of his game. He’s very similar to Rice.
There's not enough football stats on Palinha for me to make a statistical comparison, sadly. I do love those.
 

Andrew7582

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He looks pretty slow acceleration wise, reminds me of Matic in the way he moves, I would prefer someone more mobile myself. He's an alright player but i'm pretty sure we can do better.
 

DWelbz19

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And your post had started so positively! :lol:
Rice is a fundamentally good player, to be fair. He's just not worth the amount of money the move would bring with it.
He looks pretty slow acceleration wise, reminds me of Matic in the way he moves, I would prefer someone more mobile myself. He's an alright player but i'm pretty sure we can do better.
Unless you've got a machine to make super midfielders, you'll be hard-pressed to find a 6'3 holding midfielder who tackles/screens and has the accelerative mobility. Funnily enough I'd actually say that both Pogba and McTominay are actually pretty good across the ground for midfielders of their size, it's just neither of them properly have the discipline needed for the deeper role.
 

MadMike

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He looks pretty slow acceleration wise, reminds me of Matic in the way he moves, I would prefer someone more mobile myself. He's an alright player but i'm pretty sure we can do better.
I don't know why, but most DLPs are slower players. Carrick, Pirlo, Kroos, Busquets, Jorginho even Ruben Neves. You wouldn't call any of them fast or agile.
 

Ekeke

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Looked like a player we should be interested in for DM each time I've seen him.

So often defensive players are hyped up because of doing things other than defending. Palhinha is a guy who like AWB, or Vidic, or someone like that... You can just see that they love defending as much as any other part of the game. Its not a chore for them, its what they want to do. Thats not to say that he will 100% succeed in that role here, because the same could be said for Schniederlin at Southampton before we signed him. I havent heard his thoughts on his time at United and what he felt went wrong, but I do know he stopped doing the things he was doing at Southampton that made me a fan.
 
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izec

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Hope we have him on our list. Would prefer him to Neves. Rice is too expensive for me, this could be great business and a great signing. Buying from Sporting cant go wrong for us.
 

Blood Mage

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He looks like a young Matic, which is exactly what we need. Yes please.
 

Reapersoul20

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Him and Sanches are the perfect double pivot in my mind...not seen them together much for the 'geezers, but in my mind its perfect.
 

youngrell

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I’m sure Bruno will be in the manager’s ear if this guy is the nuts. He would know and he’s one of the players who will benefit most from an upgrade in midfield.
 

Glorio

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Agent Bruno slacking on his duties again. Too busy scoring hat tricks and pens :nono:
 

Andrew7582

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Unless you've got a machine to make super midfielders, you'll be hard-pressed to find a 6'3 holding midfielder who tackles/screens and has the accelerative mobility. Funnily enough I'd actually say that both Pogba and McTominay are actually pretty good across the ground for midfielders of their size, it's just neither of them properly have the discipline needed for the deeper role.
A holding midfielder doesn't need to be that tall. We already have Maguire, Varane, McTominay, Pogba, Ronaldo so Palhinha's height isn't really needed.

I don't know why, but most DLPs are slower players. Carrick, Pirlo, Kroos, Busquets, Jorginho even Ruben Neves. You wouldn't call any of them fast or agile.
Palhinha is more of a ball winner than DLP from what i've seen.
 
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Based Adnan

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Curious to see how Sporting fans rate him compared to Carvalho when he was there who was also highly rated at the time
 
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Bring this Matic regen to our club. He looks perfect. Aggressive in the tackle, great positioning and distribution.
 

Peyroteo

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Curious to see how Sporting fans rate him compared to Carvalho when he was there who was also highly rated at the time
Carvalho I suspect was overhyped to sell and didn’t live up to it
William at his best was the closest thing to Busquets but his best only lasted a couple of seasons. A very good player but completely different to Palhinha, his lack of speed was a problem often. On the ball he was the better player for sure but overall I think Palhinha is a level above.
 

golden_blunder

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William at his best was the closest thing to Busquets but his best only lasted a couple of seasons. A very good player but completely different to Palhinha, his lack of speed was a problem often. On the ball he was the better player for sure but overall I think Palhinha is a level above.
Used to think that WC reminded me of an immobile tank, still strong but very immobile. Was he ever tried at CB? Used to think he had the physical attributes at least for there
 

Peyroteo

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Used to think that WC reminded me of an immobile tank, still strong but very immobile. Was he ever tried at CB? Used to think he had the physical attributes at least for there
Never played CB. He was too slow and not that great defensively for that. In midfield we put players alongside him that did a lot of running (Adrien, João Mário for Sporting, Sanches/Gomes for the NT too) and it worked well. We won the Euros with that midfield.

Since then he's been injured a lot and dropped down a few levels
 

Bebestation

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I'm quite a tall guy myself but he looks scary.

Looks much better than Neves.

I'd say this is the best player I've seen bought up as a potential target so far.
 
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