João Palhinha

[Muttley]

That is certainly the hope.

We've tried several times for several years to try to fit players that aren't natural DM players into that role and not succeeded.

To use another Poch example both Wanyama and Dembele played deep in midfield in the 4-2-3-1, but had different roles. We essentially never played Dembele as the "DM", even though he was in that position. Had we done I don't think he would have been as good at that as he was at the role that suited him best (the one he actually played).

With Palhinha we have a natural 6/DM, destroyer type (I would personally prefer a more playmaking type, but he is a natural fit there). I think it's a vital signing, he may not be the perfect player, but he's a very good fit. And his style probably suits Frank really well.

I really hope you're right about Palhinha.

What I would add though, fans forget that in the Wanyama/Dembele partnership Big Vic spent an incredible amount of time ahead of Mousa in the middle third. The power in that partnership was the opposition perception that Wanyama was the holding midfield. in reality. it was Big Vic that started so many moves and drove us forward with the ball at his feet. He then let the more sklilfull Dembele take over and was happy to drop back in after Moussa collected the ball and worked with Eriksen, Kane and Dele. The other player you couldn't remove without impacting us negatively was Eriksen. The next part was down to him so often.

i do worry that Palhinha might be able to do his thing well but not have the other players around him that make him look as good as Wanyama did.

 

[braineclipse]

I really hope you're right about Palhinha.

What I would add though, fans forget that in the Wanyama/Dembele partnership Big Vic spent an incredible amount of time ahead of Mousa in the middle third. The power in that partnership was the opposition perception that Wanyama was the holding midfield. in reality. it was Big Vic that started so many moves and drove us forward with the ball at his feet. He then let the more sklilfull Dembele take over and was happy to drop back in after Moussa collected the ball and worked with Eriksen, Kane and Dele. The other player you couldn't remove without impacting us negatively was Eriksen. The next part was down to him so often.

i do worry that Palhinha might be able to do his thing well but not have the other players around him that make him look as good as Wanyama did.

I agree. We definitely need that Eriksen type profile.

I've said before, but Palhinha to me makes a lot of sense as long as we fix the issues he doesn't fix in other ways. Maddison's injury just makes that all the more important.