Here’s what I saw in the game last night.
First of all I think Santos played a quite decent game and his substitution was solely based on tactical changes. I.e. Dunga bringing on the gung ho attacking Dani Alves. There were plenty of Brazilians who did worse and deserved the substitution more.
Attacking abilities
A pair of tactical considerations needs to be taken into account before judging though. First of all, it seemed pretty clear that Andre Santos was told by Dunga to keep the defensive balance whenever Maicon came forward(which was all the time). His field position was 10 also about meters deeper than Maicon’s. Second, Robinho (who was absolutely crap) didn’t keep his attacking positions, but kept going wide left and therefore often blocking the attacking positions Andre Santos should be taking. I.e. he was ruining more or less all initiatives from the left.
These two things meant that Andre Santos never really put his mark on the game offensively as much as he could have. Constantly keeping back instead of giving the team some of the offensive runs the team so desperately needed. However he did come forward three times in the first half and they were the best three chances Brazil had all half.
However that also meant he never really was able to show us how good he really is offensively. We never really saw a cross that needed to be quality or a breakthrough that showed anything extraordinary. so we didn’t really get any answers there apart from perhaps his ability to stick to the coaches tactics (however lousy they might be). Or (depending on the mood) perhaps his lacking courage in breaking the tactical bonds given to him.
Defending abilities
Was again hoping to see more but the early goals from USA, meant he never really got pressured over periods of time. However we did get to see that Tim Howard consequently put his goalkicks straight at his man, and that he won every single heading duel given (big plus there).
On the negative side, you could (unfairly) say he got caught on middle grounds on both goals:
- On the first he gave away a free cross, but from a position where this should be allowed.
- On the second he lost his marker in the two on two counter. But that was IMO just a class counter attack, and well deserving a goal.
However more alarmingly (and worth keeping an eye on. He did get a stupid yellow in a duel that never should be a problem, and generally seemed a bit clumsy going into physical duels, however winning most.
Conclusion
Tactically he seems more right than e.g. Grosso or Molinaro, and qualitavively he seems okay. But we probably need a different type of game to really judge how he would fit into our team and at least how well he would stand up to a different kind of pressure in e.g. Champions League.
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