Joao Palhinha

[grange]

Palhinha please!

We already have one of the top 2 DCMs in league and adding Palhinha (who my opinion is among the top 5) would be amazing!

Do you want us to play with 2 DMs at once or move Rice to 8 or something? That's not our setup.

 

[TH14shahriar]

Do you want us to play with 2 DMs at once or move Rice to 8 or something? That's not our setup.

Imagine going to Anfield with Palinha and Rice as double pivot. What a wall.

 

[grange]

Imagine going to Anfield with Palinha and Rice as double pivot. What a wall.

He's 28, had a collapsed deal with Bayern agreed, so I'm not sure if he would come here to be 2nd fiddle to Rice considering the alternative. Sure it would be nice to have him just that I'm not sure he would do it.

 

[ArsenalInMyHeart]

Imagine going to Anfield with Palinha and Rice as double pivot. What a wall.

--------- Rice-Palhinha----------
Timber - Gabriel - Saliba - Tomi

I can imagine our back like that

 

[TH14shahriar]

He's 28, had a collapsed deal with Bayern agreed, so I'm not sure if he would come here to be 2nd fiddle to Rice considering the alternative. Sure it would be nice to have him just that I'm not sure he would do it.

Yeah I'm not sure about it either, think its mostly agent talk tbh. Bayern have been after him a while, think he'll go there.

 

[DuBB]

He's 28, had a collapsed deal with Bayern agreed, so I'm not sure if he would come here to be 2nd fiddle to Rice considering the alternative. Sure it would be nice to have him just that I'm not sure he would do it.

I don’t assume he’d be going to Bayern to be any more of a guaranteed starter than he is here, to be fair.

And if we’re now back to our status as a big club, when you factor in PL wages I’d assume coming here to rotate is a more lucrative option than going to Bayern to do the same thing.

At first when the links popped up I was a little put off, but if you consider him as essentially a piece to come in (as probably one of 2 midfielders who are going to come in by the summer), Pahlinha + 1 in exchange for Partey, Elneny and probably Jorginho isn’t a bad shout at all.

In terms of pure 6s, he’s literally the best one in the league who isn’t currently at a Top 6 club.

If the age profile of the additional midfielder(s) who come in are more in line with the rest of the squad, a rotation 6 of his profile is probably the very top level of what we could and should be doing.

Rice as the usual 6 with two more attacking mids ahead of him, or Pahlinha, Rice and Ode as the 3 in tough games is approaching Man City levels of midfield depth and options.

As much as I’m intrigued by the Zubimendis of the world, I’d rather take a risk with a younger prospect at the 8 rather than one at the 6.

 

[RunTheTrap]

--------- Rice-Palhinha----------
Timber - Gabriel - Saliba - Tomi

I can imagine our back like that

Rice and Paulhinha double pivot might be the most diabolically anti-football thing Arteta has conceived. I'm so disgusted by it that I'm somewhat intrigued to see it happen.

 

[Rasmi]

Rice and Paulhinha double pivot might be the most diabolically anti-football thing Arteta has conceived. I'm so disgusted by it that I'm somewhat intrigued to see it happen.

With 4 centre backs behind them. Yeah even Moyes wouldn’t do it

 

[A_G]

They heard Arsenal are interested and backed off

 

[RunTheTrap]

With 4 centre backs behind them. Yeah even Moyes wouldn’t do it

Kai Havertz in the Feilaini role. Hmm?

 

[Sanchez11]

I have come to the conclusion that with Rice we dont need a double pivot.

 

[A_G]

 

[OnlyOne]

Would be a horrible signing.

 

[SA Gunner]

What's Paulhinha's creativity like? Can he play the TP5 role for us?

Very physical midfield, but I think it needs a bit more finesse as well. Zinchenko and Ødegaard to pull strings centrally, but I do expect them to assist in our build up phase as well.

But we can rest Rice more and go strong in both the PL and CL for the second half of the season.

 

[TromsoGooner]

Think Fulham will demand a big fee to sell him mid season. They could get dragged in the relegation fight without imo. Will certainly leave next summer though.

 

[Sebastes]

What's Paulhinha's creativity like? Can he play the TP5 role for us?

Very physical midfield, but I think it needs a bit more finesse as well. Zinchenko and Ødegaard to pull strings centrally, but I do expect them to assist in our build up phase as well.

But we can rest Rice more and go strong in both the PL and CL for the second half of the season.

Nope. He’s an elite destroyer, has better defensive stats than Rice for example, but apart from that he brings very little to the table. Stats will be influenced by how Fulham plays of course, but it still looks pretty bad from a progressive/creative point of view.

I think if you play Rice as dm, which is what we’ll do, then you look for more attack minded players. Like we’ve done with Trossard now.

I’ve been on about Paqueta for lcm since he was at Lyon and he really is the pick of the bunch imo. Technical and creative but still quite physical. Should have some chemistry with Rice as well.

 

[Sammy1887]

It would be quite dumb to get another DM for big money whilst we have to play Bumketiah upfront.

 

[Vinci]

Yeah, good player, but not the profile we need.

 

[Riou]

He's a quality player don't get me wrong, but we already have the best version of that type in Rice.

So for the money we would pay I would move on to someone else, tbh.

 

[Rasmi]

Palhinha and Rice. We going all out becoming the deadest team