Journalist De Telegraaf emphatically: “He has so much impact on the midfield.”

Last Saturday, Mauro Junior played as captain of PSV in the match at the Johan Cruijff Arena against Ajax. The Brazilian started as a left-back, but after a few adjustments by coach Peter Bosz, he was moved to midfield.

According to PSV watcher Jeroen Kapteijns of De Telegraaf, Mauro’s impact on the midfield is so high that the club management will mainly have to focus on signing wide defenders coming summer. ''The PSV coach substituted Joey Veerman and the not for the first time very lackluster Paul Wanner off the pitch and added venom to the midfield by bringing on Sergiño Dest as left-back, which allowed Mauro Junior to be moved from the left-back position to the midfield. The young Belgian Noah Fernandez also came on'', Kapteijns writes in De Telegraaf.

The chance is quite high that Dest will leave next summer. In addition, it is still quite uncertain whether Anass Salah-Eddine will stay with PSV or not.

Earlier sources reported that PSV would be interested in Mats Rots from FC Twente as a reinforcement for the left-back position. On the right-back position, Zakaria El Ouahdi from KRC Genk has been linked with a transfer to PSV for several months already.

Due to Mauro’s multifunctional availability, Kapteijns makes it clear that PSV must set its priorities for next summer on the back positions. ''Mauro has such an impact on the midfield that an important objective for the upcoming transfer summer will be to ensure the back positions are well covered, so that the Brazilian can be used in midfield. With that in mind, PSV would like to keep Anass Salah-Eddine on board, even though he, due to participation in the Africa Cup and the subsequent physical setback, has not been able to build on the good first half of the season'', the journalist concludes.