Joao Palhinha split Tottenham Hotspur’s fanbase before he had even pulled on the shirt.
To one section of the supporters, he was an effective antidote to one of the team’s major issues. Last season, there was a hole at the heart of Tottenham’s midfield, and there was nobody with the defensive attributes or tactical nous to fill it. In their view, Spurs needed a destroyer to prevent teams from slicing through the middle of the pitch with ease, and Palhinha, regarded as one of Europe’s best tackling defensive midfielders, helped provide a solution to that problem.
To the other portion, it was yet another example of Spurs’ lack of ambition. Palhinha had been brilliant at Fulham, winning the club’s player of the season award in 2022-23, where his talent without the ball far outweighed his limitations with it. But after failing to make the grade at Bayern Munich, a team that plays expansive, attacking football, questions were raised about whether his attributes were a better fit for a bottom-half side rather than one aspiring to challenge for a European spot.
As he returns to Craven Cottage on Sunday for the first time since leaving for Bavaria in 2024, the jury is still out.
Palhinha has been far from a disaster in a Spurs shirt. He was outstanding in August’s Super Cup penalty shootout defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, and was integral, chipping in with the opening goal, in a man-of-the-match performance in his next start, a 2-0 away win against Manchester City.
Against sides where Tottenham could only expect to be competitive, Palhinha was a driving force in the midfield that lifted them to a level above City and PSG, who only came back into the game after he was substituted off. His tackling ability, energy and competitiveness are a leveller for outmatched teams.
This season, Palhinha leads the Premier League in tackles (88), despite playing by far the fewest minutes (1,599) of anyone in the top five. James Garner, who ranks second, has made seven fewer tackles in 2,423 minutes, while Elliott Anderson, in third, has made 76 across 2,416 minutes.
Using the “true tackle” metric — a more comprehensive combination of tackles attempted, challenges lost, and fouls made, detailing how frequently a player attempts to win the ball — his numbers continue to stand out. He’s made 12.4 true tackles per 1,000 opposition touches at a 64 per cent win rate, ranking third and fourth, respectively, across all 164 defensive midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues who have played more than 1,200 minutes this season.
And as he often did for Fulham, Palhinha has also steadily contributed with important goals and assists. That opener against City was his first of five in all competitions so far, with a whipped, curling effort against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and overhead kicks against Bournemouth and Doncaster proving he’s much more than a stiff who gets stuck in.
But the data also tells the other side of the story. Palhinha ranks 14th among Spurs players for pass completion at 81.6 per cent. For a player often criticised for his lack of adventure in possession, his relative underperformance (ranking 134th in the same sample) while exhibiting a relatively safe diet of short, sideways and backwards passes, highlights that the early-season concerns were not unfounded.
Even Xavi Simons, who frequently plays high-risk passes into space and between lines, completes his passes at a marginally better rate. It’s barely attributable to his increase in minutes in defence, where he plays a greater share of long passes, either. In fact, his pass completion rate across the entirety of the season, regardless of position, is only marginally lower (81.2).
But if Palhinha were without flaws, he would still be playing for Bayern. His qualities and deficiencies are evident, and have largely remained unchanged since he joined Fulham in 2021. He is a world-class tackler, possibly the best in Europe in his position, but he is below average with the ball and cannot and should not be relied upon to contribute frequently to build-up play.
These conditions are manageable. In his prime, N’Golo Kante was possibly the best ball-winner the Premier League has ever seen. He also happened to be below average among central midfielders in possession, yet remained a huge net positive for Leicester City and Chelsea in their title-winning teams. Sensibly, he was paired in midfield with someone who could distribute at a high level in line with the coach’s tactics. Kante thrived as a consequence.
Palhinha and Kante are different players, with the latter much more mobile than the Portugal international, allowing him to leave his mark in every area of the pitch. Palhinha is much more comfortable operating in the middle of the pitch, though, like in that goal against City, he can press forward higher up the pitch. As football shifts towards a high-octane, transition-oriented game, a player who can win the ball as well as anyone should always have a place in a well-oiled machine. But Spurs, quite clearly, are not that.
With Kevin Danso nearing a return to fitness, Palhinha may again be shifted back into midfield on Sunday. Igor has certainly made clear that’s where he wants to see him.
“He is a big leader, important for the dressing room,” Tudor said of Palhinha in his pre-Fulham press conference. “Not just as a player, also as a human being. He played (in defence against Arsenal), this is not his natural position. So, he did something extra for the team in this particular moment. I know that he’s best (in midfield).”
Given that Tudor has also spoken at length about his desire to be aggressive out of possession and noted his concern with “bad habits”, a character such as Palhinha, who knows how to play on the edge without tipping over, appears a perfect driver for him — even if the lack of a midfield partner to compensate for his shortcomings remains a problem.
After all, Spurs are now in a relegation fight with experience and leadership at a premium. Whether he plays as a makeshift centre-back or in his preferred midfield position, Palhinha, labelled as a bottom-half player by his earliest critics, should surely have an important role in battling to lift the club out of a relegation scrap.