Wolves' new Brazilian striker: Who is Leo Bonatini?

What type of player are Wolves getting in Leo Bonatini?

I think this is a very shrewd deal by Wolves, bringing in a player who has shown an ability to score a wide variety of goals on a relatively consistent basis, which is exactly what Wolves, and any club, would be looking for in a striker.

While I can’t claim to have watched a huge amount of Bonatini during his exceptional season at Estoril, from what I have managed to witness I can safely say that this is a low-risk deal which could prove to be great business, with Leo netting on average a goal every two games over the last two seasons.

Even if it doesn’t quite work out with Wolves and he fails to be the consistent striker he has been over the past two seasons, it’s definitely worth a punt, as he could potentially prove to be a very tidy signing, especially if his record is anything to go by.

Can he make the transition to Championship football in England?

He’s not particularly a standout striker or someone you would immediately label as top quality but, while he can prove to be quite frustrating, he seems to just get the job done more often than not.

So it’s hard to know if he’ll definitely be a good fit in the championship. We’ve seen some strikers who have managed to adapt to the league brilliantly, while other have struggled badly.

I didn’t see him play at all last season while he was at Al-Hilal, and I can’t express the same confidence that I had for Jota and Vinagre regarding his suitability to acclimatise to the championship.

However, he’s got good physicality about him while also not being one dimensional, being both solid in the air and with his feet. He has scored some great goals from the edge of the box, while also acting as a poacher and bagging some tap-ins.

From what I’ve seen, he does rarely get more than one goal in a game, so the goals he does get are nicely scattered throughout the season. He also, while sometimes appearing quite ungainly, has sufficient movement to get into space and create chances for his teammates as well.

Why did he flourish at Estoril?

It’s a good question because, as I said, he doesn’t immediately come across as a particularly special striker, yet to get seventeen league goals in one season for Estoril, who are a good but not spectacular Portuguese outfit, shows some serious goal-scoring ability.

Indeed, he finished as fourth top goalscorer that season, only behind Jonas and Mitroglou of Benfica, who went on to win the league, and Slimani of Sporting, who was an absolute goal machine during his time in Portugal.

So that was an excellent achievement. I also remember him taking the lead for Estoril against Benfica that season with a nice little near-post flick goal, a little like Giroud sometimes does for Arsenal, a tidy little finish. Nothing spectacular but it was very composed, and to take the lead against Benfica is always an achievement.

He was also only 22 at the time, so you’d think he’s only going to improve from here. However, it is worth mentioning that he also had a rather underwhelming season on loan at Estoril before he joined permanently, getting just 4 goals in 16 league appearances.

Hopefully he manages to continue the form he had during his second season for Estoril as opposed to the one that preceded it. He sometimes disappears during the season as well; he can go on great goal-scoring runs but does occasionally disappear for six or so games in a row, so that’s worth watching out for.

Was a move to Saudi Arabia a surprising move?

Somewhat surprising, especially considering there were a few reports dotted about linking him with a move to Benfica or Sporting, although Al-Hilal are a big club in Asian football and it’s not all that rare to see South American players move to Saudi Arabia.

Money would also have been a big factor, and I believe Estoril got a very decent fee for him considering he’d only had one great season.

Is he a source of assists as well as goals?

He’s certainly capable of getting a handful of assists though he’ll mainly be a source of goals for the team. But he does get involved with the game and help out the side with some nice passes.

He also has some good movement, often drifting out wide, but goalscoring is definitely his speciality.

Is he an international of the future?

Brazil did go through a spell where they struggled to find a top quality out-and-out striker to round off a team with incredible depth, but I’d be highly surprised if he became a Brazil international player.

He’s good and offers a source of goals, but to get into a side the calibre of Brazil you need to be in the very top bracket, and very few players manage to get to that level.

He has an incredibly long way to go to be noticed by a Brazilian manager who will have a huge pool of young, aspiring Brazilian strikers all over the world vying for a spot in the team in the future.

Even Benfica’s outstanding striker Jonas, at the age of 33, has only featured a dozen times for Brazil.

Can he be a big success at Wolves?

He certainly could be, although I’m not quite as confident with him as I was with the likes of Jota, Neves, or even Vinagre. If Bonatini can build on his very solid record in Portugal and Saudi Arabia, he should prove to be a good player for Wolves.

But he can get frustrating, particularly if he hits a period where he struggles to find the back of the net. But it’s an incredibly low-risk move with potentially very high reward, so Wolves have done a great job on this one.

He’s still quite young, he’ll be hungry for goals and has a proven goalscoring record. Wolves can’t lose on this deal; if it doesn’t go to plan, he’ll return to Al-Hilal and everyone will move on, or he’ll continue to build on his last two seasons and prove to be a consistent goalscorer and a terrific find.

Want to know more? You can follow Alex on Twitter by following him at @Aljeeves10