Paulinho, full name – Jose Paulo Bezerra Junior, is a 24-year-old Brazilian midfielder.
Prior to his £17million move to White Hart Lane earlier on this week, Paulinho played for Sao Paulo based club Corinthians.
There, he scored 37 goals in 167 games and was part of the Corinthians side that beat Chelsea in the Club World Cup final last December.
Outside of Brazil, very little is actually known about Paulinho, only that he was one of Brazil’s outstanding players in this years Confederations Cup.
So let’s take a closer look at Tottenham’s new-boy.
Midfield MaestroPaulinho reminds me of a young Steven Gerrard, in the way he can dictate the pace of his team and still manage to defend tirelessly – shutting players down before they even get a hint of goal.
The young Gerrard, back in the early 2000s, really bossed the game. He had the legs to help out everywhere on the field, chipping in with a few incisive passes, tough challenges and the odd screamer from 25-30 yards.
But with Paulinho I think we’ve found a new and improved Gerarrd – a ‘Gerrard 2.0’ if you will.
Paulinho brings a combative approach to his play accompanied by incredible stamina for the full 90 minutes.
His pace, tempo and ball distribution are all of a high order, he can do it all.
Attacking DangerHis will and desire to bomb forward on the counter–attack is something to be admired. He loves to silently lurk around the midfield, timing his darting runs in to the penalty area to perfection.
On set pieces, he offers the skill of well-directed power headers. Anyone can have the odd powerful header, but to execute it every time like Paulinho, is definitely a skill.
Leadership SkillsPaulinho is highly expected on and off the pitch. At just 24 he has captained Corinthians a number of times, often leading them to victory.
He has shown he is able to lead teams to titles, winning three major competitions in two year with Corinthians.
Spurs Are On The UpAs AVB is adding quality to the team, I feel that the gap between Spurs and Arsenal will now close.
They will, however, need to address the clear weakness they have upfront.
As for the midfield, with Sandro ruled out for the majority of last season, they turned to Scott Parker to act as the teams engine.
His mistakes outweighed his relentless work rate in all honesty. They really missed Sandro’s composure and positioning – Parker was just too erratic and out of position too often.
With Parker on his way out of White Hart Lane, Paulinho’s arrival would potentially create a fearsome defensive-midfield partnership between himself and Brazilian hard man Sandro, allowing Mousa Dembele to push up, playing in the trio behind a lone striker where he is more of an attacking threat.
Relying on Adebayor to be their goal scorer is nonsense. So if AVB fights off Chelsea and lands Benteke, ending their striker woes, Spurs will be the ones to watch out for this season.
Check him out belowSource: DSG
