João Palhinha started his football career at the youth academy of Sporting CP in 2012, and he made his professional debut with the B team. He made only 2 appearances that season.
In 2017 he was loaned to Primera Liga side Moreirense and Belenenses, respectively to get some experience and play in the first team.
Palhinha returned to Sporting again and then was loaned out to Braga the following year. He returned to Sporting CP after failed negotiations with CSKA Moscow and Al Nassr.
The Portuguese plays in the middle half of the pitch as a defensive midfielder but he has no problem transitioning to play as a centre-back.
Looking at his season heatmap we can see that all his actions have been in the middle third with his play sprayed over to defensive and attacking third.
Strengths
Standing at a towering height of 6ft 3inches, having physical strength, the midfielder is very powerful. His strength would be useless in a football match if he didn’t have the motivation to make it up for it. He is like a fast track bully trying to cover every blade of the pitch, stopping the attackers from moving forward and threatening his team.
He is a danger from free-kicks and corner-kicks as he knows where to position himself, and takes advantage of his 6’3 frame to score headed goals.
He is not known for playing from the back, but he is known for moving to his defensive half to help his teammates.
Weakness
He is a complete footballer so it’s hard to pick a fault on him.
Passing
Looking at his passing range, he has made 34.6 passes per 90 which is 88%. He has created 1 big chance for his team. His long passing range is also decent which comes to approximately 70%. He is not big on passing but he does enough to help his team. He sends accurate chipped passes over the opponent’s head to attackers for them to have goal scoring chance. He ranks 71% in it.
In the pass cluster, we can see that cluster 1 is the culmination of 2 clusters. However, in cluster 2 he has made the most passes with 452 passes.
Defensive Actions
Palhinha is defensively good. If we go by his stats we can see that he has made 3.04 tackles per 90, having 86 percentile out of which he won 2.03 per 90 of them. He has made important goal-line clearances too with 0.9 per 90 in the game.
He is excellent at applying pressure because he usually uses his physical strength and speed to dispossess the opponent from the ball. He ranks 99 percentile and has made 9.46 successful pressures out of which he has made the most in the middle third with 19.93 per 90. He puts his body in the line to block player’s shots. He ranks 92 percentile in it. Palhinha is so strong that he uses his shield against the ball using his body, usually at the end of the game when Sporting is winning 1–0 or the match is close. No opponent can dispossess him that easily. He is also decent in the air as he has won 70% of aerial duels mainly in the middle third.
From the scatter we can see how he ranks in the top quadrant in defensive actions.
Touches
Looking at where he made the most touches, we can see that he has made a total of 53.4 touches per 90 out of which maximum touches came in the middle third with 31.04 per 90.
Goal Scoring Ability
The midfielder has popped in with 3 goals this season, One was from a free-kick where he popped in from the corner post despite the keeper saving it, he hit it on the rebound. Another goal was from outside the box where he let out a screamer. The third goal was where he used his height to score a headed goal from the corner kick. He is a goal threat from set-pieces, as he usually uses his height and physical strength to create goal-scoring chances.
Final Verdict
Palhinha is the talk of the town in the Premier League. Wolverhampton Wanderers are after him due to the uncertainty of Ruben Navas and Joao Moutinho and this has led Bruno Lage to scout the Sporting midfielder.
Palhinha is also linked with Manchester United due to his connection with Man Utd stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes. Palhinha’s interest is strong, and he is a defensive midfielder too. He will sit well in the United squad too with Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Diego Dalot, and Fred all there to help him overcome the language barrier and get to know Man United.
With the transfer market opening up in 9 days, where Joao Palhinha ends up remains to be seen.
