Why would he replace Rakitic in the starting 11 lol. Rakitic and Sergi are both miles ahead of him and he's not even better than our back ups.
Paulinho will be a starter.
We are not chasing him like crazy to have him as a 5th pick behind Rakitic, Iniesta, Roberto, Rafinha and other guys.
Want a new Keita for 30m when we have a bunch of them already.
Keita cost 14m and was legit a great addition, rotation option for our incredible midfield.
14M a back then is like 30-35 today.
So, Keita wasn't cheap either.
But instead for some reason we are chasing after a Brazilian B2B Midfielder who already shares the same attributes to the likes of Rakitic and Roberto.
I will be a party breaker.
Even though I don't think that Paulinho is a world class, imo, he is still better than Rakitic and Roberto in defending and aggression.
Rakitic plays like an old man for the last 18 Months. NOT only because of Lucho. He was equally as horrible for Croatian NT team in the last 18 months, running like a turtle on a field.
About Roberto, Paulinho is taller and (way) stronger.
Not to mention one more time that Roberto has low Cm experience and played 20-30 times as a Cm for Barca in the last 3 years.
As time passes, I can, to some extent understand why we want Paulinho.
Our all midfielders are of the same mold, or are of the squad level:
1. Iniesta: physically weak always. Currently old, can't run. Not a physical guy
2. Rakitic: somewhat physical guy, but lost a lot of his skills due to age and not being able to run like crazy anymore. On paper, a physical hardworker. In reality: way past his best days.
3. Rafinha: physically weak. Injured all the time. Skill level: squad level.
4. Gomes: on paper he is a taller guy. In reality, he is weak in duels and a horrible fit for Barca.
5. Denis: have a physical strength of a 13 years old teengirl. Skill level: it is even questionable whether he is a squad level for Barca?
6. Arda: an old granny, can't run anymore.
7. Samper: a sloppy guy. Far from a physical Casemiro-Paulinho guy
8. Roberto: currently a midfielder who can run the most. But defensively not as good and not as aggressive as Paulinho. Also, Paulinho is taller and stronger. Roberto is also quite suspicious in attack.
All in all, all of our current midfielders are either physically weak (good old technical-short Barca's midfielders).
And a few guys who are somewhat stronger (Rakitic, Gomes) are either old or don't know how to use their strength (Gomes).
So, to some extent, Paulinho really is a different type of a player.
Whether he will improve us is, that is a question.
But out of current midfielders (except Roberto), more or less it feels as if you are playing the same player (with a different name) over and over.