Felipe Melo de Carvalho

Club: ACF Fiorentina
DOB: 26 August 1983 (Age 25)
Nationality: Brazilian
EU Passport: No
Position: Central Midfielder

In his first season at Italian club ACF Fiorentina, Felipe Melo has established himself as a first team regular. Defensively sound, Melo keeps an eye out on the wingers and provides pinpoint passes to them. This ability allows him to switch play to the opposite flank. It is an ability that all good midfielders should possess. He has slowly increased his level of play and the improvement showed against Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin where he completely dominated the midfield against Mohamed Sissoko and Claudio Marchisio. He is a very tough tackler and at times tends to go overboard, therefore the numerous yellow cards. If he keeps going like this, he will get his first red card in a Viola jersey, soon enough. He really needs to control his temper and respect his fellow players. I say this, because he was caught slapping Cristiano Zanetti, while playing against Juventus. Sometimes he appears to be extremely lethargic, which would indicate a low work rate. Not good for a tough tackling central midfielder.

But despite these quirks he is a very good player. He has very good vision and is able to find attacking players with his accurate crosses and killer long balls. With his good positioning and anticipation, time and again, he is able to intercept passes and break up play. He prefers to operate just in front of the defenders and rarely goes on forward runs.

If he can control his temper and focus that energy on his game, he is bound to improve further. I feel Melo is far from world class but perhaps the right coach can do wonders with him. The potential is there but it needs to be unlocked. As of now, though, there are better options out there.

Matches scouted in:
Fiorentina v/s Inter Milan - 29/10/2008
AS Roma v/s Fiorentina - 30/11/2008
AC Milan v/s Fiorentina - 17/1/2009
Juventus v/s Fiorentina - 24/1/2009