The 24 year old 5 foot 11 inch Brazilian central midfielder Paulino has confrmed that he will be joining Spurs for £17m from Corinthians
Background
Paulino has been playing for the last 4 seasons for Corinthians in Serie A of the Brazilian League. He played for 3 clubs in the previous 4 seasons
Paulino is your classic box to box midfielder. I guess a comparison would be Steven Gerrard of old turning defence into attack with surging runs. Corinthians play a 4-2-3-1 and he plays as one of the 2 screening midfielders. The difference between him and other screening midfielders in this syatem is his ability to get forward.
Nothing giving any insights in his statements
“The other interest we got was from Inter but the only offer came from Tottenham,” he said. “The proposal came, we sat down, analysed it and decided. It was a big decision to go to a big club. There comes a certain point when you need new challenges.”
Stats
| Paulino Stats | ||||
| Season | Team | Matches | Goals | Assists |
| 2013 | Corinthians | 1 | 1 | – |
| 2012 | Corinthians | 23 | 7 | 7 |
| 2011 | Corinthians | 35 | 8 | 4 |
| 2010 | Corinthians | 27 | 4 | 1 |
| 2009 | CA Bragintino | 28 | 6 | – |
| 2008 | LKS Lodz | 17 | 2 | – |
| 2007 | FC Vilnius | 21 | 2 | – |
| 2006 | FC Vilnius | 17 | – | – |
| Totals | 169 | 30 | 12 | |
He’s also paid 24 games in the Copa Libertadores with 5 goals and 4 assists. For the Brazilian national team he’s played 17 times for 5 goals and 1 assist.
Fantasy premier league perspective
The easy part is game time. Paulino will definitely play from the opening game of the season. The quality and cost of the player means there’s no way he will not be starting come the first day of the season.
The tricky bit is that he will ether play in the 2 of 4-2-3-1 or he will play in the midfield 3 of 4-3-3. Obviously this isnt ideal and I would generally target players who play in the front 3 or in the hole behind the striker as far as midfielders are concerend. Gerrard and Lampard have done this last season although with the help of penalty and some set piece duties and Fellaini did show the ability to do similar when he was moved in to the CDM role. To me though this really would take a special player to be in my fantasy premier league team in this position and although there’s no doubting his quality its more of a wait and see position rather than likely to be someone in your opening day team
His last full season though when Corinthians finished 6th he returned 7 goals and 7 assists from 23 games. If he replicated that form in fantasy premier league he would have returned 11 goals and 11 assists. That would put him virtually in the Mata stakes who scored 12 goals with 12 assists. However Mata played in the 3 of 4-2-3-1 which is a more attacking role. Obviously there’s a big difference in the quality of the leagues.
To make things more difficult if Bale is still at Spurs then lets face it he’s going to be in your team and are you really going to start with 2 midfielders from Spurs?
At this stage its a no for me for my opening day team. Ill be keeing an eye on him in pre-season to see how he does get forward as there’s no doubting his quality it’s just his likely position as a defensive midfielder doesnt excite me
