Manchester City could pick up a big boost to their title hopes by landing a January transfer deal for Joao Palhinha.
With 19 league games played, Pep Guardiola’s side have conceded 21 goals, which is more than Liverpool (18) and Arsenal (20) have let in, and have only been able to keep five clean sheets.
This showcases that leaking goals has been an issue for the Citizens this season and could end up costing them the chance of making history by winning four Premier League titles in a row.
However, with the January transfer window now open for business, one deal that we think could help City fix this issue and give them a boost towards potentially winning the title is by signing Palhinha.
City should sign Palhinha this month
Last month, it was reported that City are plotting a £50m swoop for the Fulham midfielder for the current winter transfer window.
The west London club signed the Portuguese international during the 2022 summer transfer window from Sporting CP for £20m.
Since then, the 28-year-old has made 60 appearances for his current side, scoring six goals along the way.
Despite only being in England for 18 months, Palhinha has shown how much of an impressive defensive unit he is.
For example, looking back over the previous Premier League campaign, the midfielder won more tackles (83) than any other player in the division by a comfortable distance.
Palhinha has started this latest campaign in the same fashion, as he currently has the highest combined total of tackles an interceptions (112) in the league.
This makes it easy to see why the Fulham star was labelled as an “influential” player by Jamie Redknapp recently.
It also highlights how much of a useful player the midfielder could be for City in terms of helping them stop conceding as many goals as they have been over the first few months of the season.
With all of that in mind, we feel that securing a January transfer deal for Palhinha could be a very smart move for City to make, especially if Kalvin Phillips ends up making a move out of the Etihad Stadium this month.
