Andrey Santos | 2026/27 Performances

Him and Tielemans must be one of the most unathletic CM pairings in the PL. Mainoo not much better. We are going to have quite some issues
 
Godfather said:
Him and Tielemans must be one of the most unathletic CM pairings in the PL. Mainoo not much better. We are going to have quite some issues
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The ball travels faster than anyone can run. They're all capable of pinging throughballs - the bigger concern is who's running on to them, we have Amad/Mbeumo on the right, potentially Dorgu on the left, but beyond that there's no pace on the wings or upfront in Sesko, Cunha, Shaw, Dalot, Mazza etc
 
cpresc said:
The ball travels faster than anyone can run. They're all capable of pinging throughballs - the bigger concern is who's running on to them, we have Amad/Mbeumo on the right, potentially Dorgu on the left, but beyond that there's no pace on the wings or upfront in Sesko, Cunha, Shaw, Dalot, Mazza etc
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I think their lack of athleticism is a real issue. Tielemans especially looks proper unfit. His touch is also all over the place currently
 
Godfather said:
I think their lack of athleticism is a real issue. Tielemans especially looks proper unfit. His touch is also all over the place currently
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We have had plenty of midfielders with lots of running power but next to no ability on the ball.
We just need to be better at maintaining possession.
 
Lyng said:
We have had plenty of midfielders with lots of running power but next to no ability on the ball.
We just need to be better at maintaining possession.
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Well I am sure there are CM out there that can run AND pass the ball.... It's just that we are run by absolute clowns
 
Not seen him play yet, but thought he was meant to be the athletic one compared to Tielemans and Mainoo
 
Won the ball with 4 tackles, 1 interception and 67% ground duels won and had 2 passes into the final third. Yeah probably his least effective match with the ball, partly because Milan had more of it than us. Dont think he did much wrong for the first equaliser as Maguire had already let Ramos past him when they collided. I think he just suffered from Milan's team having more of the ball and despite being the player who won the ball the most on the pitch, he couldnt do it all himself and while their ground duel %s were shocking and their ball winning numbers were certainly nowhere near Santos, Jashiri and Musah both had 5 passes into the final third. So the starting Milan midfielders certainly had some good success against our midfielders with their passing into advanced areas
 
Sandikan said:
Not seen him play yet, but thought he was meant to be the athletic one compared to Tielemans and Mainoo
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He’s definitely more mobile than Tielemans. Covers a lot of ground every game. Plus he’s string and quick across short distances. Don’t get sucked into all the hysteria about athleticism. Reading some of the comments you’d think we were playing a bunch of 50 year olds in midfield.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He’s definitely more mobile than Tielemans. Covers a lot of ground every game. Plus he’s string and quick across short distances. Don’t get sucked into all the hysteria about athleticism. Reading some of the comments you’d think we were playing a bunch of 50 year olds in midfield.
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It sure looks like it at times. Also looking more athletic than Tielemans seems hardly an achievement. Casemiro last season looked more mobile than Tielemans did in pre season.
Not been overly impressed by either of our midfield purchases in pre season. But hey they were relatively cheap I guess so all must be good
 
Godfather said:
It sure looks like it at times. Also looking more athletic than Tielemans seems hardly an achievement. Casemiro last season looked more mobile than Tielemans did in pre season.
Not been overly impressed by either of our midfield purchases in pre season.
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And Casemiro was one of our best players last season. We finished in third place in large part because of how well we played in central midfield in the second half of the season.

Did you watch Tielemans for Villa much last season? He didn’t seem to be much of a hindrance to their midfield. Which doesn’t make sense if he’s the sort of decrepit old man I’m reading about on here.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He’s definitely more mobile than Tielemans. Covers a lot of ground every game. Plus he’s string and quick across short distances. Don’t get sucked into all the hysteria about athleticism. Reading some of the comments you’d think we were playing a bunch of 50 year olds in midfield.
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I fully believe if Busquets was in his prime right now a lot of posters on here would say we should go for someone more athletic…
 
Pogue Mahone said:
And Casemiro was one of our best players last season. We finished in third place in large part because of how well we played in central midfield in the second half of the season.

Did you watch Tielemans for Villa much last season? He didn’t seem to be much of a hindrance to their midfield. Which doesn’t make sense if he’s the sort of decrepit old man I’m reading about on here.
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Let's see. I am not overly optimistic about our midfield options from what I have seen of them but very early doors of course. Was hoping for a much better transfer window that is for sure
 
Should not be judging based on one pre season game and don't buy into the athleticism argument either. An intelligent midfield far supersseds an athletic one. I'm sure a midfield of xavi, Iniesta and busquets would be derided for not running enough , on here.

Feel we have a bigger issue down the left flank, which was absolutely useless today and hope it would be better with cunha in his proper position.
 
People still trying to spin this around and convince (themselves?) athletism is not important. Of course it is important, you can get away with one or two slow players but our team is full of those. Italian feckin league players outrun us today.

Not Santos fault, but he didn't cover himself with glory especially defensively where I thought he was crap. Not only seemed lost but also letting his man run away time after time. Also, he will give away an awful lot of fouls in EPL with those uncle tackles. This is one thing Casemiro still had last season.

We need to give this midfield two another chance but I was arguing yesterday we are going to struggle physically with this setup AND our defensive line.
 
Borys said:
People still trying to spin this around and convince (themselves?) athletism is not important. Of course it is important, you can get away with one or two slow players but our team is full of those. Italian feckin league players outrun us today.

Not Santos fault, but he didn't cover himself with glory especially defensively where I thought he was crap. Not only seemed lost but also letting his man run away time after time. Also, he will give away an awful lot of fouls in EPL with those uncle tackles. This is one thing Casemiro still had last season.

We need to give this midfield two another chance but I was arguing yesterday we are going to struggle physically with this setup AND our defensive line.
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Santos works best when Yoro and Heaven are in the team, really plays to his strengths. Team was all over the place, very poor selections by Carrick today and didn’t seem able to adjust to the right side threat at all game.
If Carrick going to move players out and who are excelling in the system, for more experienced and higher paid players, then it’s going to not work a lot of the time. If he’s going to insist on Harry and Martinez being a thing, then he needs a Baleba style midfielder to compliment them.
 
Ruud_Street said:
Santos works best when Yoro and Heaven are in the team, really plays to his strengths. Team was all over the place, very poor selections by Carrick today and didn’t seem able to adjust to the right side threat at all game.
If Carrick going to move players out and who are excelling in the system, for more experienced and higher paid players, then it’s going to not work a lot of the time. If he’s going to insist on Harry and Martinez being a thing, then he needs a Baleba style midfielder to compliment them.
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Luckily it was a preseason game and he wasn’t picking a team to win, but was just giving minutes out, realistically. So there is really no point trying to draw these sorts of conclusions.
 
Posh Red said:
Luckily it was a preseason game and he wasn’t picking a team to win, but was just giving minutes out, realistically. So there is really no point trying to draw these sorts of conclusions.
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Facts. There’s some key players who aren’t even playing in pre season for different reasons

When has pre-season ever been anything but a regrouping? And for fitness/testing things out?

We’ll be preparing for Hull now with zero care about AC Milan - all it means is Carrick has a better idea who to start.
 
Lennon7 said:
Facts. There’s some key players who aren’t even playing in pre season for different reasons

When has pre-season ever been anything but a regrouping? And for fitness/testing things out?

We’ll be preparing for Hull now with zero care about AC Milan - all it means is Carrick has a better idea who to start.
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Yeah. The posts about the game today are so dramatic. Why get worked up over preseason? Save it for when we are shit in competitive matches.
 
The unathleticism of both him and Tielemans needs to be balanced out with more athletic defenders. If you got the likes of Maguire lumbering about it's just not going to work as well i'm afraid.
 
Lyng said:
We have had plenty of midfielders with lots of running power but next to no ability on the ball.
We just need to be better at maintaining possession.
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Unfortunately lots of other clubs have midfields that can run and pass the ball
 
I hope he is installing a permanent ice bath at home, because it looks like an incoming 60-game season for Santos!
 
Poor game. Wasn't up to it at all.
 
A somewhat rich man's Tom Cleverley.
 
He basically looked same as Ugarte.
 
Yeah well. Not unexpected this. Doesn't look really good at anything. That's what you get for that kind of money from a Chelsea bench player I guess.
We must have some weird FFP agreement with Chelsea
 
Was better than Tielemens but that’s not saying much.

Doesn’t seem to offer very much
 
I think he was quietly okay. He didnt feel like he had much impact but he did make 5 passes into the final third which is usually good - perhaps not as good when you have as much of the ball as we had.

1 tackle, 0 interceptions, 5 recoveries of loose balls. Not great.

We were up against a 65k midfielder and one signed for an undisclosed fee so... Yeah didnt look a £50 million midfielder today. But arguably did a bit more than Tielemans
 
I think he was unfairly slated in the match thread. He was doing the job we bought him to do, and we actually had some control in the centre.

Incidentally, Hull was ruining us on the flanks where they had a lot of joy, as have just about every team who have matched up against us with wingbacks.
 
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