By 1970’s Gooner
When I first saw Santos play for Arsenal, I, as everyone noticed, spotted his attacking capabilities but at the same time cringed every time he had to defend.
His attacking bias also takes him deep into the opponent’s half and if we loose the ball he is so exposed up the field that we have to defend that left side with either a centre back dragged out of position or Gervinho has to drop back. He is not that defensively minded player of course.
All these weaknesses became very apparent at Chelsea and of course at Norwich. A large percentage of their attacks were instigated from that side. And I am sure opponents will now plan to attack Arsenal from that side of the pitch.
With Sagna and Jenkinson out of action Konscienly had, in my opinion, a very good game against Norwich as a right back. He has improved no end recently and I do think that he will develop into a quality centre back for Arsenal.
In fact he could keep that right back position now which would mean that our defence will improve no end.
I have no doubt that Metesacker will get used to the PL but I am not sure about Santos.
He has to curb his attacking instincts if he is to do that.
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27 comments:
To 'Dapper Dan'.
Shut up.
Don't be a retard.
Santos is by far our weakest player. He is brilliant attacking, could be turned into a left midfielder like Bale was, but defensively he is poor. If we had spent 5 million more we could have bagged Baines, who is overall solid, and a great improvement.
Yes he has improved, but when you have people like Nani, Milner, Van der Vaart and others drifting into that position like Silva, Suarez, Rooney and more, you really can't afford to be poor defensively.
Wenger is bring continental attacking wing back play to the pl with Jenks and santos. The DM pulls back to the center while the CB cover the attacking flank. It's simple tactics abroad. Just very strange to us 442 up and at 'em british eyes. But I belive it will work well for us.
Ha! The fact you even trooted out baines name is priceless, you really are thick
Leighton Baines is not a great player so i dont see why everybody talking about baines, Santos is a Brazilian international. Baines couldnt walk in the Brazil team, dont fool yourself, english players are only rated by who lives in england and dont knows soccer, only two english players i would want in arsenal team and 1 is already there in Wilshire and Rooney, the others are useless and cant play anywhere else. So leave Santos alone, he is a proper footballer.
In several games, including the chelsea one, he started very poorly, but really improved in the second half, particularly defensively. It looks to me like he is being surprised by the pace/difficulty of the PL, and is raising it in the second half to compensate. He clearly has the ability, but you can't judge a new player too harshly after only a few games. He has shown enough to deserve a proper chance before facing this sort of criticism.
Koscielny made similar mistakes last season as he did not expect the sort of physical challenges at times, but now he looks really classy.
I agree with Dapper Dan, Santos brings a different kind of dimension to the team. I'm actually sick and tired of you negative minded farts like Siphiwe. Perhaps you would want us to play Shu-Shine Piano soccer like your national team!!!!
We know you!!
Baines is the shortest defender in the PL bar none. If anyone seriously thinks he'll improve our defensive performance then forget following football you've no understanding of our needs. It's not as though he's even that great a defender. It's his set pieces that earn him recognition and we've players to do that. Santos is a huge improvement on Clichy and is a far more mature and experienced player than Gibbs. His defensive performance in the fist half at Chelsea was down to poor defending from the midfield and flank players. Djourou had the same difficulty in the first half. We sorted that out in the second and both Santos and Djourou went on to have good games. Dapper Dan is right this is just formulaic media fed ill informed rubbish.
Baines is already 27, if he was any good he'd already be at a top club, same with Cahill. Santos is quality, great going forward & the defensive understanding with the others will come in time.
Start supporting Arsenal or get lost. There are lots of good things going on in the defence - no-one seems to be calling for a defensive coach now - and Santos is adding an attacking option that Clichy could never do. Plus is equal defensively.
Its good to see Arsenal fans shut up bloggers like this. By judging our new Brazilian left back after this short time, he just doesnt show a supporting personality and dont deserve to call himself an Arsenal-supporter.
Typical, that some Arsenal fans & bloggers have to criticise. While Andre Santos may not at the moment be the most solid, defensive minded full backs lets not forget he has just arrived in the most demanding league in the worls & will hopefully improve that side of his game.
He is really exciting going forward & i love to watch him. He has offered more from an attacking perspective with end product in a few weeks than Gael Clichy did in years. Lets also not forget Gael, although i liked his effort made many many mistakes that were often glossed over in his last 2 years & was targeted by teams & had become stale & a bit of a liability at times. I am happy with Andres contributions, he is stronger & taller than Gael so adds a bit more size & physical stature. Also Jenkinson at right back who while still learning his trade has shown heart & commitment & the ability to whip in a great cross. Enough getting on players backs & making scapegoats, Same thing happened to Song years ago. Please support anyone who puts on the shirt & gives their best.
I actually think the team is looking more solid & together now than it has been for years & after a settling in period has now found a different style & other ways to attack without Cesc, Nasri & Gael. Andre along with Arteta & Gervinho are all Part of that & we may find that the team benefits as a whole because of this?
Effortless article.... im sure i have read half decent opinion from you before??
Anyway... santos is becoming one of my most enjoyable players to watch in this 'new' arsenal side. He always looks like he is enjoying playing 'football'.... i guess that is just the brazilian in him.... yes im sure he will give me and many other fans a few heart stopping moments during his time but he offers us so much from left back creatively without filling a midfield/winger role.
He sums up everything im proud of as an arsenal supporter and if he had his way every match would be like the chelsea game... and i cant speak for you but i enjoyed that game so much.....
i cant see into the future but i feel his offensive contributions will heavily outweigh any defensive shortcomings that may come as a result...
Embrace it.... :-)
My God!!! This is the worst article I have ever read about football.Thankfully the comments section made my day.Let's put fools like this author where they belong...in the dust bin!!!
The boy is Brazilian. What do you expect.
Support your team or pipe down. It's evident you have little to no knowledge about football. The band wagon is on its way you better jump on.
haha im sorry but all you people are blind if u say santos is doing well! we are not talking about his attacking aspect, we are talking about his defensive capabilities! and they are crap! he is our weakest link in the defence. his positioning is shocking and he never sees players runs behind him. he is the best ball watcher iv ever seen! yes he is new to the team and will need to addapt but currently he is our weakest link in defence. i agree his attacking capabilities are great, but the first role of a defender is to DEFEND, and he needs to work on that asap. but hopefully with more time and awareness he could be great. and ps he hasnt made the brazil squad in a long time, hes been axed long ago
luv dis club and d fans a lt. An article pops up dat we dont lik we roar, and if 1 pops up dat we lik we mew. And dat is d spirit of d game.
Hasn't made the Brazilian team in a long time???? He's played more games this year than last year and as many as the year before that. There's plenty of competition in getting selected for Brazil but he usually makes the squads and played in their last tournament. Typically uninformed comment from a poster unable to think for themselves. Is he really a poor defender? Looks a pretty good tackler to me and wins plenty of headers. If no-one covers him when he goes forward then that's a team failing not an individual one. You might as well claim Vermaelen is a bad defender based on bis surges forward against Norwich. The idea that he can't defender is just because he's so good going forward. The unknowing and unthinking will always feel it isn't possible to be both.
august this year against germany was Santos last appearance for brazil
tbf, it doesn't take a genius to work this out..
you could have made more of an effort with the article
i love santos's play first of all he is better than gibbs, and one thing people dont realise is when he goes up it forces wingers to drop back and he is useful up front he always looks to recover his position when arsenal lose the ball and he is not shabby at tackling niether
in over 200 games clich only scored 2 goal and santos has matched that in less than 15 andone of those goal was a winning goal in a champions league game.
am not saying santos is perfect but he is good for the team and why do arsenal field a king song if not to help block leaks in the defence
terrible article. sorry
hail the super brazilian!! we love you santos!!
Santos is by far better than Gael and have more capabilities than Kieran. You got no idea what so ever when u said that Baines better than him. If Baines is brazilian, u think he'll ever make it in to the national selection list? English players are all over rated, the media put too much pressure on them. Look at the last world cup, so much praised but in the end, none of the talk get to walk! Trust the brazilian, he'll make it.
Santos makes our attack so unpredictable, I just enjoy watching him play!Of course those who watch the games after smoking something see things differently!
Santos definitely can tackle, we have seen some brilliant 1 to 1 tackles from him, it is his positioning sense is a bit too careless due to his attacking instincts. But he can learn, no doubt about it IF he has enough desire to improve physically.
The only problem here - Arsene can not play Arshavin + Santos on the left now, because that would be a complete disaster. But the guy has one priceless quality - confidence.
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