Unearthed: Palhinha
(Picture: Getty Images)Fulham’s lack of transfer activity has had Marco Silva riled all summer, but in Joao Palhinha the newly-promoted side look to have nabbed a gem.
The £20million summer signing from Sporting Lisbon could hardly have asked for a tougher test on his Premier League debut, against a Liverpool team that went so close to a quadruple last term the first visitors to Craven Cottage on Saturday.
But in a battle with the Reds’ Champions League and title-winning captain Jordan Henderson, the technical genius that is Thiago Alcantara and, most dauntingly, Fabinho, perhaps the division’s shrewdest defensive midfield operator, it was Palhinha who stood out, as the hosts began the season with a deserved 2-2 draw.
Palhinha’s stature helps: at 6ft 3in, the 27-year-old looks much more in the Tomas Soucek or Rodri mould than the N’Golo Kante one. He was dominant in the air and strong in the tackle. But, beyond size, the Portuguese exuded a certain presence, uncowed in the face of a Red wave that so often overwhelms, as Fulham gave the visitors a taste of their own medicine during the first half in particular, when Jurgen Klopp’s side struggled to work the ball through the lines and found themselves penned in.
Silva believes his countryman is especially well-suited to the demands of the English game, though it is worth noting that the Portuguese top flight is providing increasingly fertile ground for English clubs.
“Joao, in the next few games, weeks, months, will give more and more and more,” Silva said. “He already showed his quality and how he can adapt. [The Premier League’s] almost the perfect [style of] football for him.”
Former Manchester United man Andreas Pereira also impressed on his competitive debut, but that he and Palhinha were the only members of Silva’s starting XI not relegated with Fulham two years ago explained plenty of the manager’s grumblings. His squad remains short on both numbers and quality and the 45-year-old was quick to stress as much.
Fulham have thrown plenty at the wall in the transfer market going into recent post-promotion campaigns and that this is the third one of those in five seasons says a fair bit about how little has stuck.
But the need is to do better, not to do less, and on first showing Palhinha’s arrival shows that a club famed recently for some dismal recruitment are capable of getting it right.
