Santos for me has a four year contract, of which he will play for us for probably 3, when he will be 31, and he has every chance to join the list of firm fan favourites, and I hope I can back that up. Firstly however, I would like to dismiss the press contention that Santos was a panic buy because Wenger was quite firmly linked with him in the summer of 2010, so he was obviously a player he admired. Santos like Nelson, Cole and indeed Gibbs is a converted left midfielder/winger and Wenger has always been a coach who likes his full-backs to join the attack at every opportunity and had encouraged this in all his teams.
Santos is from the Brazilian school of full-backs that are effectively used as additional attacking players. One only has to think of Roberto Carlos to envisage the role, and let us not forget that it was our own Andre Santos who took Carlos’s place in the Fenerbahce team and then for a brief period in the Brazil team. This has worked in the Brazilian national team in each of the last 3 World Cups because both Dunga and Scolari before him have operated with two holding midfielders. In 2002 it was Gilberto and Kleberson and more recently it was Gilberto and Melo. It would appear that this season Wenger has moved to this 4-2-3-1 formation, primarily using Arteta alongside Alex Song and it is against this new backdrop that I expect a now fully fit and adjusted Andre Santos to flourish.
The formation is the key and it does require discipline from the two more defensive midfielders. If Santos is to be allowed to surge forward, join play and overlap with Gervinho, Alex Song or whoever is playing to the left of the two must know when to shuffle back and cover. Against Chelsea in the first half we saw Santos seemingly struggling to get back and leaving wide gaps, which Koscielny was manfully making ground to fill. In the second half Santos was obviously not told to curtail his attacking inclination, but when he went forward Song was covering, leaving Kozza in position. The team needs to adapt and use the obvious attacking flair and blossoming understanding with the Ivorian.
I am not saying that Santos does not need to improve the defensive aspects of his game because he certainly does, but let’s not forget he was only converted to a left-back by Corinthians in 2008/09. In addition, the pace of the English top flight will be several steps up from Brazilian or Turkish domestic football.
At the end of the day a certain Pat Rice should know a thing or two about defending from a full-backs perspective, having played there close to 400 times for our great club, so he is in good hands.
Only last week former Arsenal favourite and Invincible Edu spoke to the Daily Mirror about Santos.
Now Director of Football at Corinthians Edu said:
‘He is a very good player and a very good guy. With the ball he is technically fantastic, a typical Brazilian player. But every Brazilian needs time to adapt to the league because the English league is so different. I am 100 per cent sure that the fans will love him because he is very good with the ball.’
It has been widely commented on that Santos has already doubled Clichy’s goal scoring record for Arsenal inside 10 games, but we should not be surprised, as his record was a goal every 4 games for Fenerbahce. The reality is that with Gibbs out for a month or so, Santos will be our left-back for some time now, and I for one am genuinely excited to see the left sided attacking combinations of Santos, Gervinho and RVP.
Could this trio rival the rampaging buccaneers that were Cole, Pires and Henry from 2001 to 2005? I truly hope so and perhaps Andre Santos can indeed become a legend of the club like so many previous left-backs through the years.
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I couldnt agree more. Santos has the making of a very good left back for us. he is not defensively as bad as people make him out to be and he is very good going forward. as his fitness level improves, fans are going to understand why he is now first choice left back from Brazil!
I have to admit that I still have my doubts regarding AS11. Neither him nor KG28 give me lot of confidence and if I line up my preferred starting XI, LB is, IMO, our weakest position.
It is because of Santos’ 2nd half reply to his 1st half at Chelski, that done it for me. It takes a REAL character to come back in the second half and give back double what he had to endure in the 1st half nailing his come-back with a class goal.
santos better than clichy..that is reality…
Without a shadow of doubt. Better defensively and 10 times better going forward but I think there is more to come. He’s not small either and he can use his head which Clichy certainly can’t do. A big part of the reason that Arsenal became predictable last season was that Clichy wasn’t overlapping effectively so whoever played left wing always had two players on them. That meant no penetration down the left wing and with Walcott on the right more of an inside forward the team lacked width. Now defenders have Santos to worry about on our left flank so Gervinho gets into more dangerous positions. It might not be the whole reason, the form of RvP perhaps contributes more, but it’s certainly helped Arsenal to break opponents down so far, despite lacking Cescs’ creative spark in the middle.
A perfect and succint summary Charlie. you have the essence of my belief there mate.
santos is realy adapting to life in england wch i think per shld do fast