When Andre Santos arrived from Fenerbahce on deadline day in August 2011, opinion was divided whether the left-back would prove to be a success or failure with Arsenal. The Brazilian has begun well, enduring himself to the Gunners faithful by scoring the equalizing second goal in the Gunners 5-3 beating of Chelsea in October.
However, a majority of fans are still unconvinced about the maverick’s defensive competence. Lack of match fitness, getting caught up the field, giving the ball away too much, not tracking back enough and not showing enough determination in duels are some of the allegations against the defender. He certainly does not inspire much confidence with his seemingly lethargic approach on the pitch.
So is Andre Santos as bad a defender as he’s made out to be?
Let’s go through some statistics from the EPL Index treasure trove (powered by OPTA) and see if they paint a picture. For the purpose of this analysis, I will be comparing Santos with his own team-mate Kieran Gibbs, as well as left-backs from the remaining three top-four teams.
Firstly, let’s look at the number of games and minutes played.
As you can see, the Brazilian has started the least number of games and played the least amount of time. As a rule, one would assume more game time is beneficial to a player’s form, so Santos is probably disadvantaged in this respect in comparison to the others. There’s another opinion you can form based on minutes played and I’ll address that later in the article.
The second table below looks at involvement and success rates in duels and interceptions made.
As we can see, Santos is just marginally behind his own team-mate in % of Ground Duels won but ahead of the other three left-backs. The Brazilian is well ahead of everyone in the Aerial Win %. The Brazilian’s minutes per Ground 50-50′s stat is way better than the others, his per minute Aerial 50-50s is behind Gibbs but comparable to two of the other three. And he makes interceptions with more regularity than any of the other four.
What this suggests is that Santos is heavily involved in the action, and compares very favorably with his peers in winning 50-50s and making interceptions.
Next Page: The comparison continues with passing and tackling stats for Dos Santos et al…
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Categories: Arsenal (NN), EPL, EPL Index Featured Article, EPL Opta Stats, Manchester City, Manchester Utd, Tottenham Hotspur
Tags: AFC, Clichy, Dos Santos, Ekotto, english Premier league, EPL, epl opta stats, EPL Stats, Evra, Gibbs, MCFC, MUFC, premier league, Spurs Stats, THFC
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He is rubbish.
If there is any player,I wish to go injury free next season,its kieran gibbs.I think him &santos will do just fine & u can play the both if attack through the left gets much.
Just goes to show that you can make statics prove almost anything you like!! I prefer to trust the judgement of my own eyes and they are telling me that, exciting though he is going forward, defensively Santos is an accident waiting to happen, with little real knowledge of how to tackle or position himself properly. Unfortunately we have the very same problem with Gibbs, and what I’d give to have any of McNabb, Nelson, Sansom, Nutty or Cashley playing there.
Very interesting. I must admit I was one of those that thought Santos was a liability. However, the stats do heavily suggest otherwise and ignoring them would just be putting on the blinkers so I suppose I may be wrong!
Just imagine ronaldo v santos? in the champions league or even valencia v zantos. im.sorry the lad is not as good as clichy we should.have.got enrique and that was from a bloke who eanted to keep gibbs and traore. unfortunately gibbs santos traore clichy and enrique are not good enough. where we find a.better left back than vermaelen i just dont know but of all the left backs mentioned above he is the best at least.at defending. sagna koscielny down the right of defence with vertonghen vermaelen down the left is the best we can hope for. even baines is not better than vermaelen.
Vermaelen? I know everyone was excited a while back about the prospect of him playing left back, but surely that has died down after actually seeing him play there.
The guy is a centre back who, at best, can do a job at LB. He might be a better defender than Gibbs or Santos, but he struggles to contribute to the offence like they do. We saw how poor Arsenal were without wing-backs, relying on Vermaelen and Djourou.
Gibbs is the long-term option provided he can stay fit. Santos is good enough for now.
And as a left-back, Baines is far better than Vermaelen. Come on now.
“Just imagine ronaldo v santos? in the champions league or even valencia v zantos”
I’d be interested to see these types of match-ups, to be honest. I don’t think Santos would be exposed for a lack of ability to handle these players individually at all. It depends how much he would need to concentrate on defence, I’d have thought. From what I’ve seen, he’s well capable of taking a right winger, and bullying him out of the game. He’s technically great, and, like many good dribblers, is good at defending against good dribblers.
Btw, look at what Taarabt did to Vermaelen, in his preferred position – why are you so much more confident that he could handle Ronaldo or Valencia than Santos?
Fascinating. I think its a very good report, and think you got one thing wrong: three of his four peers lose possession more quickly, rather than less quickly.
What this shows is that Santos is as good or better than the bulk of his peers on most categories other than defensive mistakes, which maybe you could explain, since they almost never happen, and are much rarer than chances created, for example. It also shows that his work rate is actually superior to most of the rest, most of the time.
You provide some great stats, so I made a stab at accumulating them. You display four defensive actions per player. If you add the total for Santos, you find he has 209 in the 815 minutes he played. That is one defensive action ever 3.9 minutes.
And his peers:
Gibbs: 1 defensive action every 5.2 minutes
Evra: 1 every 5.2 minutes
Clichy: 1 every 5.8 minutes
Assou-E: 1 every 6.4 minutes
You might more accurately call these chances — chances to make a defensive play. I’ll leave to you the calculation of rates of overall success and success per minute. I’d be interested in your answers. But one thing about defense is this: if you don’t try, you can’t make a difference, and Santos makes a trackable defensive move about 22.5 times per 90 minutes, versus 18 for Gibbs and Evra, less than 16 for Clichy, and 14.5 for Assou-E.
That may be why he has two defensive errors — its because of his better ability, not despite it. He makes one defensive error every 4.5 90-minute games, in return for which he provides
20 more defensive chances taken than Gibbs and Evra
29 more defensive chances taken than Clichy
36 more defensive chances taken than Assou-E
And for three of these four, he is as productive in creating offensive chances.
Why is his work rate better? Possibly its because he is faster than his peers, and is actually a more efficient user of his energy and physical resources. It could also be that, because he is new to the league, his opponents, regardless of the quality of their teams, view him as a weaker target and so attack him more.
Maybe with a more complete season his averages would drop, due to accumulated minutes and better opposition understanding of him.
But, maybe its because he is simply better.
Thanks for spotting the loss of possession gaffe! As you’ve correctly indicated, Santos actually loses possession less frequently than three of his peers. This of course strengthens the case on his behalf, as you have rightly pointed out.
Thanks also for aggregating total ‘actions’, will get around to rechecking it soon. Although on the face of it, all the numbers you have listed make sense. And they are further proof that Andre is actually far better than is perceived.
I would definitely like to do a follow up next season, just to see how he shapes up in his second year.
Thanks again for reading.
Its his first season.
Give the guys break.
If he was British or welsh he would be over rated and hyped up by everyone.
Made into a god.
Ramsy has flopped and is a shame to any arsenal player yet everyone keeps giving excuses and justification to his shameful displays.
Santos is a professional player unlike the spoilt favoured over rated Ramsy that deserves to be sold !!
He’s been excellent. Its a pity he got that injury otherwise you wouldnt even need to have this discussion. No one I know thinks he is anything other than brilliant.
I started this comment before I saw the others. I’ll go with the stats over preconceived biases.
By the way, Assou-E’s defensive liabilities may be due to his skills or due to the incredibly aggressive way he is asked to attack by his manager.
Love Santos he’s absoloute quality! Got to love him even more when he’s talking about putting Ballotelli “in his place”. He’s already equalled Clichys scoring record in half a season too…..
I do agree with you that people are been to harsh on him
Whoever is unconvinced dont know a player when they see one.
Give the man a chance, he just come over from his last club not getting games, their loss. Then when just starts to get going , he gets a broken leg in a non nonsensical game and he has just come back, COURSE HE AINT FULLY FIT YET. Santos is a top player and importantly, he likes to put our shirt on and he is our best left back.I rest.
Couple more stats:
Best to watch… Santos
Best skills…Santos
Best play-maker….Santos
Best goal…Santos vs Chelsea
Thanx for the stats. They DO amount to something – more reasons why I love it at the Emirates when Santos comes on. He is seriously entertaining. Love it how he rubs it in when we’re winning. Spesh. It’s a shame others don’t see it, but they didn’t see any of this coming did they! This new squad and stadium is tops. As for the ‘ambition’ tosh, I saw us take Man City to the cleaners.(Top atmosphere by the way) Coquelin Wilshire Diaby Ryo and Podolski coming.To all the doubters: “Brace yourselves”
Wow – this really took off. Good read this Maverick. Well done.
With regard to crosses. This is probably not so much of a factor to take into account at Arsenal as crosses don’t fit in with their style of walk it in the net.
Santos Is very exciting and the statistics prove it. Give the bloke a chance Gooners. Yes he sometimes looks a bit fragile at the back but he works hard and is getting better and better
Thank you everyone for reading, especially to those of you who took the time to comment. The stats surprised me when I was putting them together, hence thought to share it with you. The jury’s still out on Andre, I guess. At the moment though, the numbers are on his side.
Failure…….so far. Let him settle, he’s been injured and is a new league to him.
Which is why I think Wenger should have bought Baines or Enrique who know this league very well, no major history of injury and are proven!
Well stats are stats- but the eyes don’t deceive. Santos is creative and energetic coming forward but absolutely woeful as adefender, no positioning sense, weak in the tackle, slow and pretty damn lazy in getting back. But a bit of a cult hero as long as he doesn’t start more than 10 games a season!
Great Analysis. Ultimately it is a matter of style if you want a traditional full back who crosses or an unorthodox player like him who cuts in and adds numbers in the middle. This can be complemented by a forward who can go wide and cross (Is Gervinho or AOC such player?) else it can get a bit crowded in the middle. Sagna has improved his crosses and the pace of Theo means that more attacks are created on the right flank in which case having Santos bursting forward as he did in the 3-5 game at Stanford Bridge is effective because opposing team has no one who is marking him. I suppose most opposing teams are less used to a Santos style of playing as full back, and if Gibbs is available too, AW can select the full back, who is most likely to cause problems to a particular opposing team.
I ve never doubted this guy, plenty of steam and skill. My problem is with this Adam who goes fromm blog to blog attacking Ramsey. Style up dude, Arsenal was here long before you and will continue long after, so maybe you should think about getting behind the boys or starting a football club.
The lad is far better than the rest of his peers on that table.we should allow him to settle down and we will see the best of him.but i take nothing from gibbs,he is also good.just let us to appreciate our players,maybe they will improve.thanks
Lets give him more time 2 adjust to pl do u rembr king first sesn at hibry?
do u kno hw 2 spek englizh?
First off I’m a spurs supporter. Now the stats prove he has defensive ability. What those stats don’t compensate for is player judgement and positioning. He’s a player that will have to learn his game and his position. If he can ..Wenger will have a world class player on his hands.
Excellent comment – usually rival fans would immediately slate a player. Glad you’re not one of those.
Isn’t it interesting also that by these stats Assou-Ekotto is the best attacking fullback of the 5? It maybe shows how underrated he is in that respect.
where do u get these stats?
Maverick subscribes to this website (eplindex.com) – we have a stats centre where you can obtain all team and players stats since 2008/09 for Premier League sides.
Viva Santos!!!
He will become our first choice left back once he assimilates
fully into the demands of the EPL.
He is class and seems like a terrific spirit to have in our team.
I think it shows that people target him defensively, and for the most part, he does very well. Having higher minutes-per-ground duel and minutes-per interception than the others suggests teams send the ball his way more often, because they think he’s more likely to make mistakes than sagna, or because they think he has less protection on his side.
The stats do show he is a good individual 1-on-1 defender, but there is much more to defending than simply winning headers and tackles. You can prove anything with stats, but you have to have ALL the stats to really prove he’s a great defender. As Ima says, people should give him a bit of a break – time will tell.
Santos needed time to get fit at the start of the season due to the troubles of his previous club. He did not have a pre season. When he started to get into the groove, unfortunately he was injured. Now, he just back and needs games to be top notch again. I think he will be good LB next season. One do not play for Brazil unless he is a good player.
I have a notion that the same people who think he is a liability are the same ones asking for Wenger’s head for playing Santos in CL and getting him injured. You cant have it both ways.
Our results post Olympiacos injury have been proof that he was missed. Makeshift defence does not work and we have been solid ever since our fullbacks are back.
I just want to say that I am not trying to prove Santos to be a good defender. Just presenting stats which suggest he may not as bad as he seems. I’m reiterating that he needs to play more games and that next season will be a better indication of his capabilities.
These stats only prove Santos is busier than the other left backs and I suggest this is because he is targetted by the opposition as a weak link. Stats prove nothing, I know what I see, the guy is not good enough, heck the man’s even overweight.
Andre is da best so long he’s given enough time to prove himself.
From Jamaica, we say Santos. Six months of playing time under Wenger and he will be starting for Brasil at left back. He will be scoring goals just like the rest of centre back team mate. The best offense is the best defense. What you gooners think about Dani Alves. He is comfortable and confident on the ball. Which defender dont make mistake. Verminator made two that cost us against QPR and maybe he made one or two that we overlook because we won the match by a superior scoreline.
how good are these complainers in there jobs, santos adds something dat is missing in arsenal e.g a better goal threat, better dribler,and better crosser wch is not popular @ arsenal
Believe, Andre Santos is a brilliant player, he’s a new weapon going forward and his interceptions in midfield are first class. Simply an excellent, natural footballer, and whilst he does roam out of position on occasion all gooners can forgive him that for the additional skills he brings to the team. + what a nice fella!
andre santos may have some lapses but defensively he needs more games and due to the home grown rules from observation AW had tried to change his position in order to give Gibbs a chance. but frankly speaking, andre and the rest of the team needs more motivation then attacked and blind criticism.