William Carvalho is a player we have been linked with signing for the second time in a space of a year. Why? Because he has the qualities of a Premier League player, but perhaps now you’re questioning his age. Well, 30 years old isn’t that bad and some say you get better with age. He still has a lot of offer and has never played Premier League football, which might be the temptation for him the second time around. I still believe he is the player who was outstanding in 2016 European Championships winning squad for Portugal.

Marco clearly has a plan, in Marco we trust so let’s dive in and see what sort of player William Carvalho is.

Carvalho mainly plays as a defensive midfielder. He can also play as a centre back or as a central mid sometimes this is something that could be useful for Fulham depending on what Marco has in store for us – will he go for more of a 4-3-3 or will he be switching it and reverting to a 5-2-3 with two holding midfielders. Another option is a 4-2-3-1 with two sitting in front of the back four allowing both full backs and the four in-front to push on.

Carvalho has the mentality of winning any ball that can lead to only a few errors. He is a passing merchant who can read the game by cutting the passing lane, and someone who can occasionally play the long through balls. (I’m now starting to see a pattern.) He can dribble with the ball and with the physicality size of the player his bulky presence makes him harder to tackle.

He is a delight to watch in my opinion forget the age and forget the price tag its about what he can bring. Though he lacks a great deal of pace it simply doesn’t matter because who cares about pace anyway, this isn’t FIFA. The important thing about a player like Carvalho is the other attributes he shows. He is the type of box to box type player that has all-round class meaning that even if he does sometimes seem to just stroll about the pitch, he’s almost always in full control of the midfield battle and in the right place at the right time. And when he’s in possession and charging forward, he’s very difficult to stop.

He brings a two sided game can do well defensive but also can be on the front foot charging forward.

His time at Real Betis maybe underwhelming s looking back at his time in Spain I do see a potential move on the table for the former Sporting Lisbon player who knows Silva having spent time there together and I can see Silva giving Carvalho the kickstart to show the world who the real William Carvalho is.