Paulinho is a fantastic player.. Admittedly under AVB his inability to take fewer than 4 touches and his sometimes-wayward passing frustrated me, but these were symptoms of the manager's style and a lack of adjustment to English football. He is really settling in now and will be one of our key players from next season until he leaves the club.
Against Stoke, his final game before the multiple-month injury layoff afflicted by the cvnt Charlie Adam, he looked like one of the best CMs around. He ran the game, had some excellent flare touches and was generally reminiscent of the sort of powerful, technical midfielder that is so important in modern football (See Yaya, Fernandinho, Matic, Vidal). Since coming back he has taken a bit of time to settle but against Fulham he looked back to his best and again ran the show alongside Eriksen.
I have been pretty absent from this board recently, so it comes as a surprise that Paulinho is apparently sh!t. He and Eriksen are the only two certainties in midfield for me next year, provided they remain Spurs players. I think the world (Spurs fans especially) will be reminded of Paulinho's quality at the World Cup.
The way they are similar is how they ghost into the box, both Paulie and Lampard
