5 things we've learned about Barcelona so far this season

#3 Paulinho is NOT Neymar and hence, is perfect for Barcelona

Paulinho has proved to a stellar signing for Barcelona

A lot was made of Paulinho’s move to Barcelona from Guangzhou Evergrande earlier this season, especially because his move to the Camp Nou came hot on the heels of Neymar’s world record transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, and no one saw the incoming Brazilian as an ideal replacement for the outgoing one.

Paulinho and Neymar may be compatriots, but that’s pretty much the only similarity between the two. And as far as the differences between the duo are concerned, for starters, Paulinho plays as a central midfielder, whereas Neymar played on the left-sided attacker along with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

And as a direct consequence of their respective playing positions on the pitch, their respective roles for Barcelona were radically different.

While Neymar’s primary task during his time at Barca was either to score or to assist Messi and Suarez in scoring, Paulinho has been brought in to add more steel to Barcelona’s midfield and protect Sergio Busquets.

While Busquets is undoubtedly the unsung hero in Barcelona’s midfield, the fact that the Spaniard is not the strongest player in the world physically is a well-documented one. And therefore, the addition of Paulinho to protect Busquets is easily understandable.

However, easily the most impressive aspect about Paulinho’s game this season has been how he has added goal scoring to his arsenal of skills.

Despite never being a natural goal scorer at any stage of his career before this, the former Tottenham Hotspur man has managed to pop up with 7 goals and 2 assists so far this season and this simply has to be the icing on the cake.

Paulinho and Neymar may be as different as chalk and cheese as far as their playing styles are concerned, but truth be told, the differences between the two run far deeper than that.

Simply put, while Neymar has always wanted to hog the limelight in whichever team he has featured in so far, Paulinho seemingly just wants to help his team do as well as they possibly can while staying as far away as possible from the spotlight.

It’s only been half a season since Neymar left Barcelona and Paulinho arrived at the Camp Nou, but going by what we’ve seen so far, the latter is nothing like the former, and Barcelona and their fans couldn’t be happier about that fact.