Air Paulinho: Barcelona's new weapon from corners and free-kicks
Barça have gained in two areas with the arrival of the Brazilian
For his clubs and his country, he has scored 18 career headers
Ivan Rakitic had the monopoly on goals from the second line at Barcelona after Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.
The departure of Ney and the rival of Paulinho has modified the ecosystem, though. Time will tell us more, but two conclusions can be drawn from these first six games of the season: Paulinho is not the clumsy, defensive player most had sold him as and the team has gained goals from midfield.
Paulinho -- the signing who Robert Fernandez convinced the club to pay 40 million euros for -- started at Montilivi, repeating the header which he scored from against Eibar at Camp Nou. This time, the ball didn't go in, but the Brazilian confirmed what seems like it will be a constant when he's in the team: there will be more goals from behind and his power in the air adds an advantage at set plays.
That's an area where Barça have shown weaknesses in recent seasons. In fact, Gerard Pique, after the departure of Carles Puyol, has been exclusively responsible for scoring from corners and free-kicks into the box. The centre-back is also a specialist in the air, both in defence and ttack, but now he has a partner, which will make it more difficult for teams to defend against Barça from these type of situations. Despite Unzue's work on set plays with Luis Enrique, set plays had deteriorated recently, due to a lack of specialists. Paulinho will help recover that threat in matches which are difficult to open up.
TOTAL FREEDOM
Ernesto Valverde, beyond the defensive work he gets from Pauliinho in keeping the lines together and closing space, has also given the midfielder freedom to move in attack to strengthen arrivals from deep. The coach is aware that the Brazilian can add a lot to the team in this sense.
In fact, he's already scored two goals, the last one with his head, one of his specialties. In his career as a professional, counting all of his clubs and the Brazil national team, he has scored 18 headers. Since he started playing for Corinthians until now, he has scored 74 goals (15 with his head) and 10 more with Brazil (three headers). In total, 18 out of 84, more than 15 percent. I give you all: 'Air Paulinho'.
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