Wolves should beat Leicester City to sign Joao Mario in January
According to Calciomercato, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City are among a host of Premier League clubs who are linked with Inter Milan’s out-of-favour Portuguese midfielder Joao Mario.
Joao Mario won the Euro 2016 with Portugal and also participated in the World Cup at Russia where he made 4 appearances. Despite tasting commendable success at the international arena, his club career hasn’t quite gone according to the script.
A youth graduate of Sporting Lisbon, the 25-year-old Portuguese midfielder started his professional career with his boyhood club before completing a mega-money move to Inter Milan in the summer of 2016. Although he registered 3 goals and 5 assists from 30 appearances in his debut season in the Serie A, he was frozen out of the first-team in the following season.
Struggling for regular minutes in the first half of the previous season, Mario completed a loan move to Premier League club West Ham for the remainder of the campaign. As a matter of fact, he had a pretty successful loan spell at London Stadium where he picked up 2 goals and an assist from 13 appearances.
Wolves have taken the Premier League by storm since their promotion to the top flight following a successful season in the Championship last year. While Nuno Santo’s men sit 9th in the standings, Leicester City have been inconsistent. The Foxes have neither been outrightly poor not have they built momentum in the early stages of the season.
Wolves enjoyed an unbeaten run in the month of September with Nuno Santo winning the award for the Premier League Manager of the Month.
With impressive and resilient displays against Manchester City and Manchester United, Wolves have proven that they mean business. A place in the Europa League is certainly not beyond their reach if they continue to perform consistently at the highest level.
Since their sensational Premier League triumph in the 2015/16 season that took the world by surprise, Leicester City haven’t hit top gear in the subsequent seasons. The Foxes were struggling at the wrong end of the table last season before Claude Puel took over and guided the club to a respectable 9th spot.
Although they haven’t been consistent enough this term, they have shown a lot of promise which certainly makes them contenders to battle it out for the Europa League spot.
As things stand, both teams in question need to bolster their squad to rack up wins on a more regular basis as the season progresses. Playmaker James Maddison has been the find of the season for Leicester while Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho have dictated terms for Wolves in the midfield.
To put things into perspective, Joao Mario could be an ideal option for both the teams. However, Wolves must fancy their chances of snapping the out-of-favour Inter Milan star, particularly with the Portuguese links that Nuno Santo brings into the club.
Santo played a major role in prising Portuguese footballers like Helder Costa, Joao Moutinho, Diogo Jota and Rui Patricio to the Molineux and Mario might be the latest addition to the list.
A versatile and technically gifted midfielder, Mario is capable of playing in an advanced role in the midfield. Although he was used as a right-sided midfielder at Sporting Lisbon, he usually starts on the left for Portugal and can also play as a central midfielder.
The 25-year-old is known for his technical abilities, dribbling skills, vision and tactical awareness in the midfield. A prolific passer of the ball, Mario can link up the play with short passes, using his vision to spot the runs of his teammates and unleash vertical line-breaking passes to influence the proceedings.
He is not an athlete and does not have the pace or agility to trouble the opposition but is a player blessed with immense tactical sharpness.
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Moutinho has done a good job alongside Neves in the midfield for Wolves. However, Moutinho is already on the other side of 30 and Mario, 25, should be the ideal man to provide cover and competition for the veteran.
That said, Wolves should table a handsome bid in January and use their Portuguese links to beat Leicester City to the signature of Joao Mario.
