Tottenham Hotspur have identified the Sporting CP midfielder Pedro Goncalves as a potential summer transfer target as they look to bolster their options.
Do Spurs want to sign an attacking midfielder?
Under Antonio Conte, Spurs did not play with a formation which would utilise the creativity of an attacking midfielder as the Italian looked to his wing-backs to provide the creativity.
And that can be seen through Tottenham's only player inside the top 20 for big chances created this season being their striker, Harry Kane.
The next player on the list for Spurs is wing-back Ivan Perisic, however, in comparison to a player like Kevin De Bruyne, the Croatian has provided 20 fewer chances.
Now Conte is out of the door, it will be intriguing to see whether a new manager over the summer will change the club's go-to formation to play with a flat back four.
This was seen under Mauricio Pochettino who utilised Christian Eriksen as his main creative spark and it certainly reaped rewards with the Dane returning 76 assists for the Lilywhites (via Transfermarkt).
Spurs have already been strongly linked with James Maddison, and speaking on the Talking Transfers podcast, insider Graeme Bailey has now claimed they have eyes on Goncalves:
(41:30) "He's been likened to James Maddison, actually. And I spoke contracts in Portugal about him, 'Pote' as the call him over there rather than Goncalves but yeah, his stats are fantastic.
"We spoke off about him, it's really impressive from him. Play him more centrally as well, but I think yeah, we know Tottenham are wanting this number 10 type player. James Maddison obviously it's very high on their list now."
"But I'm told that whilst we're watching [Pedro] Porro who came in, the Tottenham scouts were waxing lyrical about this boy. They said he is the real deal and that's where a lot of this interest stemmed from."
Is Goncavles a better fit than Maddison?
Goncalves has been in fine form for Sporting this season with a total of 18 goals and 12 assists across all competitions – including an assist against Spurs in the Champions League (via Transfermarkt).
Leicester City's Maddison has been as equally impressive this term with the England international returning nine goals and six assists in the league for such a struggling side (via Transfermarkt).
And with Maddison, Spurs would have the reassurance that the 26-year-old has Premier League experience and has shown his ability in the top flight already.
Whereas, with the £11k-per-week Goncalves, that is not the case, however, the 24-year-old does offer something slightly different to Maddison in that the majority of his success has come from the wing this season.
With Son Heung-min struggling this season to find his best form, the Portuguese ace could offer some serious competition for the South Korean and potentially a long-term successor.
However, his success from the wing has only been marginally better than that from a central role with eight of his goals and five of his assists coming from the midfield (via Transfermarkt).
Spurs have also been linked with the Sporting manager, Ruben Amorim, and having already taken Pedro Porro in January, could the north London side be set to raid the Portuguese side once again over the summer?
