Andre Santos has received a mix bag of opinions from Arsenal fans thus far in his Arsenal career. Many fans are slating his poor defensive abilities, especially against Chelsea in the first half of that game. Last night (Tuesday) against Marseille in the Champions League, Santos also went AWOL at times whilst defending and we have to rely on Song to cover for him.
But going forward, Santos does not look bad at all and he is giving us a new attacking dimension down the left.
Wenger has spoken out about Santos and the boss says that Santos is actually better defensively than we all think.
Wenger said, “I am happy when he has the ball.
“I feel personally, he is much better defensively than many people think.
“He is getting stronger in every game. He is a very intelligent boy who learns very quickly and obviously he has to adapt to the pace of the English game.
“That is not easy, to play game after game.”
What do you make of Santos so far at Arsenal?
i like santos..hes a typical brazilian player……70 percent attacking attitude. Great against poor opposition but will get severely found out against a top side. I reserve my judgement till after we play man cty.I wonder what wenger bases his claim on that hes better than we think????sounds like wenger knows exactly what we think because it is obvious he has a major flaw keeping in position.
Santos is with very unique x-ta,is an offensive defenda with perfect crosses.pipo 4get is new in di epl. His only problem is pace wc doesnt count so much 4 defenders. Fans tend base on 1 mistakes than many good perfomance(2 goals & many assist).so guys watch out how u critize or judge. On head 2 head,his beta than clichy n Gibbs other than pace only. Prove me wrong here(yperience,tackles,passes,attacking,assist,finishing)
In my opinion he is better than Gibbs.
Clichy was rubbish defensively and going forward last year. Santos has scored two already. At least we have the option of playing Per and Kos in the centre and Vermaelen on the left against tough oppositions away from home and having a threatening full-back in games where we struggle to break teams down. He’s not terrible defensively but perhaps the weak link from the first choice back line and i’m sure he’ll improve. I think he offers us something that we’ve lacked for a long time at Arsenal too and that’s an extra man out wide to overlap and create chances.
i think santos is a secret left mid, he is perfect for that position and its not weather he is a good left back but who the hell primed him to be a left back with the qualities he possess going forward n he can score goalsas well.
i think gibbs should be main left back with verm or santos as cover n wenger can experiment with a 4-4-2 with 2 strikers and santos on left mid n oxo kid on the right with gibbs at left back
im sure santos and gibbs both playing on the left side of the pitch can handle the pressure between them
Santos is a good buy, there is no doubt about it. Remember these guys came when everything was wrong and fans expectation is high, they play under pressure to deliver, imaging Santos playing when Cesc and Nasri was in the team it would have been fantastic, so guys take it easy on him he will soon show his class 100%.
I agree that Santos is better defensively than the announcers and fans makes him out to be. He won possession back a lot in the Chelsea game with good defending and a lot is being made of him lacking pace, but Boswinga did not have much on him at all and got nothing out of his 50 meter race with him in the first half of the Chelsea game. He had enough pace and composure to expose the space behind Chelsea and score a vitally important goal. 2 goals in 8 apps for Santos vs. 1 goal in 8 seasons. I’ll take Santos gladly!
Of course he is better than Gibbs who would not have got into an England 3rd X1 if he wasn’t left footed. Santos needs a bit more time to adjust to the speed of EPL. Plus he needs a Manager who will tell him … NOT to stop going forward altogether …. but to ration these excursions more intelligently than he has been. At present he is caught dangerously out of position too often. But when he does go forward he is dangerous.
he needs to lose weight – that tire around his waist is slowing him down. it’s a shame since as someone wrote, he made severl good interceptinos and stops during the chelsea match