Andrey Santos | 2026/27 Performances

He looks a bit .... chunky in the highlight video I saw. He seems to have put on some weight since I last saw him play.
 
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Crimson King said:
People are often very quick to claim a player is fat or overweight, when the player in question is in a state of physical fitness us mere mortals could never reach. It's very weird
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Oh yeah, posters sat in their overly tight t-shirt with their nipples protruding. Very disrespectful
 
WeePat said:
He looks a bit .... chunky in the highlight video I saw. He seems to have put on some weight since I last saw him play.
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Crimson King said:
I'm going to hope it's muscle
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It's the first game of pre-season. Stands to reason he won't be at his fighting weight. Why would he be? He's been on the beach all summer.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
It's the first game of pre-season. Stands to reason he won't be at his fighting weight. Why would he be? He's been on the beach all summer.
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Fair point. I wasn't digging him out tbf, was just an observation.
 
Betson said:
I think there is a lot riding on this signing , can telling nothing so far from one preseason friendly in which everyone was poor.

But how he settles and performs I think will have a big bearing on our season. Hopefully he has the ability and the character to handle the scrutiny he will be under.
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Unless Ineos spring out another out of the blue signing of an established DM or a highly rated one like Chema Andres he is our main midfield signing.
Lennon7 said:
Interesting take - I agree he's going to be over relied on, but we've signed a top quality midfielder in Youri who's set to take a lot of that responsibility. Imagine we're going to sign another midfielder too, so that's the load shared with at least Mainoo, Youri and the third signing

He's only 22 as well - 11 months older than Mainoo.
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Neither Youri nor Kobie can be relied on to replace his skill set for a sustained period and that is if he even settles as a starter for us.
 
AneRu said:
Neither Youri nor Kobie can be relied on to replace his skill set for a sustained period and that is if he even settles as a starter for us.
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Not 100% sure what this means. Why wound be be relying on two likely starter’s to be replacing a non-starters skillset?
 
Lennon7 said:
Not 100% sure what this means. Why wound be be relying on two likely starter’s to be replacing a non-starters skillset?
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I think Youri and Kobbie won't be playing a lot together with Bruno at the 10 as that is a midfield very light on defensive cover. I think at the risk of enraging his supporters there is a fair chance Kobbie starts the season on the bench as Andrey and Youri have the right combination of defensive ability and progressive passing. I do have confidence in Carrick to develop Kobbie into a more rounded player but with him reporting back very close to the start of the season it would not be the worst thing if he was eased back in slowly and he should have to earn his minutes as should all of the squad.
 
Lennon7 said:
Not 100% sure what this means. Why wound be be relying on two likely starter’s to be replacing a non-starters skillset?
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I think you will find that Santos will be a starter because he has a different skill set to Kobie and Youri. He is more reliable off the ball and that matters in the PL and CL. This is contingent on us not signing another CM/DM, of course.
 
ValenciasDrilledCrosses said:
Regardless, we seem to have a pattern of players arriving out of shape or bulking up too much at United. Lukaku and Mbeumo both come to mind.
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How many other clubs’ preseasons do you follow to establish that this is a United thing?

Regardless, in training photos/vids released today he doesn’t look out of shape at all.
 
Looks to come as advertised. He loves an accurate forward pass and defensive work. He'll set the standard for what we expect from a midfielder. Now we just need that superstar. Come on Camavinga!
 
ValenciasDrilledCrosses said:
Regardless, we seem to have a pattern of players arriving out of shape or bulking up too much at United. Lukaku and Mbeumo both come to mind.
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They’re human beings. If you go from training 4/5 days a week to having some off time, you will gain weight.

Pre-season and getting back into routines is by design…to get the human beings back into flow and back into shape.

Only absolute freaks of nature or those with ridiculous dedication will stay on tip top shape. Our current manager himself was always a slow starter after pre-season and he never looked out of shape!
 
It’s a shame about his lack of top level mobility, but everything else I think could be top level. Loves a forward pass and is already good at breaking lines. Him playing with Youri and Bruno could really help him add more variance to his passes and finishing. He won’t get to the mobility of Mateus Fernandes, but I think for the money we’ve paid we’ve got a very good second choice.
 
macheda14 said:
It’s a shame about his lack of top level mobility, but everything else I think could be top level. Loves a forward pass and is already good at breaking lines. Him playing with Youri and Bruno could really help him add more variance to his passes and finishing. He won’t get to the mobility of Mateus Fernandes, but I think for the money we’ve paid we’ve got a very good second choice.
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Yeah, I've been really impressed so far.
 
Bloody hell I know it's pre season but even in Preseason I didn't expect him to be this good.

He's like one of those small DMs where they tackle players twice their size a bit like Kante & Makelele do. I didn't think he'd be capable of blocking lanes like he does and his forward passes are almost nail biting for the opponents.

As simple as it sounds, get the ball and play it forward; he really seems like he knows how to do that so far.
 
With this lad Tielemans and Mainoo I’m not sure why we need a marquee 4th cm. We’d be much better off putting it into the forward line.
 
Pochard said:
With this lad Tielemans and Mainoo I’m not sure why we need a marquee 4th cm. We’d be much better off putting it into the forward line.
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Presumably because we're trying to compete for the league and our current midfield isn't close to that standard
 
So whats his playstyle from those who saw him. If you had to compare him to a previous player, who is the closest player he resembles in terms of playstyle and skills.
 
Told you guys you are getting a very good player with lots of potential as well.
 
Slevs said:
So whats his playstyle from those who saw him. If you had to compare him to a previous player, who is the closest player he resembles in terms of playstyle and skills.
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We haven't had players like him in a while who think when on the ball and are thinking of a pass deep in midfield. Closest I can think of in the ball is Matic, how he moves, speed, shifting on ball to find an angle

He seems good on the ball, we'll get to know later how he's off the ball once we start playing against better teams
 
WeePat said:
He looks a bit .... chunky in the highlight video I saw. He seems to have put on some weight since I last saw him play.
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Give it some time. A 22 year old player's metabolism will be high enough for him to peak by start of the season
 
Mr. Burns Tuchel said:
Bloody hell I know it's pre season but even in Preseason I didn't expect him to be this good.

He's like one of those small DMs where they tackle players twice their size a bit like Kante & Makelele do. I didn't think he'd be capable of blocking lanes like he does and his forward passes are almost nail biting for the opponents.

As simple as it sounds, get the ball and play it forward; he really seems like he knows how to do that so far.
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He did everything well but that's what impressed me most. His anticipation and positioning look very good for someone so young in that role.
 
CtrlAltDeLigt said:
We haven't had players like him in a while who think when on the ball and are thinking of a pass deep in midfield. Closest I can think of in the ball is Matic, how he moves, speed, shifting on ball to find an angle

He seems good on the ball, we'll get to know later how he's off the ball once we start playing against better teams
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Fair take

Caveat this is all first impression…

He’s very positive on the ball. Not looking for Hollywood passes but looks to break lines and really trusts himself to pass the ball exactly where his teammate will be able to do something with it, even if they’re in a tight space

I actually don’t think we’ve had someone like that for a while. Our CBs will break lines but need more time on the ball to do it. Santos seems to make his decisions fast, with accurate, short-range, progressive passing.
 
Thought he started slowly for the first 15 minutes or so, but after that he was quite impressive. Especially defensively, where even when he wasn't quite able to win the ball he constantly managed to get just enough of a touch to take it away from where the opposition wanted it to go. Including times where it seemed he had no right to get there.

I can see him picking up quite a lot of yellow cards though.
 
Pochard said:
With this lad Tielemans and Mainoo I’m not sure why we need a marquee 4th cm. We’d be much better off putting it into the forward line.
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Or signing Lewis Hall. A new starting LB like Lewis Hall definitely improves us
 
United tried to buy him in 2 separate summers, so it shows a level of planning, if nothing else.

Looking forward to see him play in the first team once everyone returns.
 
Decent game, he was nothing special in my book considering the hype over him. Hopefully he changes my mind in the remaining preseason matches.
 
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