Ligue 1 is a constant conveyor belt of talent.
New stars emerge in France’s top flight every season, and 2024/25 is no different.
One of the major success stories of the 2024/25 Ligue 1 season thus far is Andrey Santos — a midfielder currently plying his trade with Liam Rosenior’s Strasbourg on loan from EPL giants Chelsea.
BlueCo owns both clubs, and while Santos’ time with RC Strasbourg is limited, with his return to London expected next summer, it’s clear the Alsace side have benefitted from their relationship in the sense that they’ve had one of Ligue 1’s brightest stars on display for the world to see enhance their performances throughout the first months of this season.
Santos joined Chelsea from Vasco da Gama for €12.5m in January 2023 and returned on loan until that summer.
The Brazilian midfielder then spent half a season on loan with Nottingham Forest, enjoying limited game time before heading to affiliate club Strasbourg this past summer.
Finally achieving his breakthrough this term, Santos has been a revelation in the French top flight.
Our scout report aims to provide some clear insight into Andrey Santos’ style of play in Liam Rosenior’s tactics this season.
Our football analysis is divided into three distinct sections, which allow us to provide a clear and concise breakdown of the 20-year-old midfielder’s game: Goal Scoring, Ball Progression, and Defending.
Who Is Andrey Santos?
Before proceeding with the crux of this analysis, let’s address the broader question: How good is Andrey Santos?
Andrey Santos Heatmap
Santos has primarily occupied the left central midfield position in Strasbourg’s system this term, with Rosenior mainly setting his side up in either a 3-4-2-1 or 4-4-2 shape.
The Brazilian spends most of his time in deeper areas of the pitch but gets involved in more advanced areas, though he picks his moments to get forward carefully.
Santos stands at 180cm/5’11” and weighs 73kg/161lbs.
Andrey Santos Pizza Chart
First and foremost, the pizza chart shows that Santos is a well-rounded midfielder with no glaring weaknesses.
His defensive involvement and success rates are pretty strong.
At the same time, he presents decent numbers across the board in attacking and possession metrics, with pass success being a notable standout in the 20-year-old’s game.
Andrey Santos Goalscoring
Looking at the heatmap in Figure 1 in isolation, you might not necessarily assume Santos is a prolific goalscorer.
However, the 20-year-old’s five league goals place him second in the goalscoring ranks this season among Ligue 1 midfielders.
Andrey Santos Shot Map
Santos’ 2.72 xG places him third for that particular metric among Ligue 1 midfielders at this point in the season, further emphasising his ability to be a goalscoring threat for his team.
Santos’ movement is the main reason behind his goalscoring threat.
The midfielder is excellent at arriving into the box with late runs from deep, unmarked, making him a good passing option for his teammates in the final third.
We see an excellent example of this ability on display in Figure 4.
This passage of play begins with Santos receiving the ball on the half-turn just inside his own half of the pitch, in front of the backline.
This is the position where he’s most commonly found.
From there, he gets his head up and carries the ball forward a few steps before playing to a teammate occupying space between the lines.
The midfielder’s involvement in this move doesn’t finish there.
He continues running forward, bursting towards the back post as his team progresses towards the opponent’s goal.
The opposition defence does not sufficiently deal with Santos’ movement and threat, putting the midfielder in a position to convert the ball into the net first because he is unmarked at the back post as his teammate slid the ball across.
Though Santos is a deep-lying midfielder, his goals have all come from very close range, as his shot map in Figure 3 shows.
The Brazilian doesn’t typically take on lots of long shots, preferring to threaten the goal from close range because of his late-arriving runs into the penalty box, as demonstrated by Figure 4.
From these types of attacks, as well as set pieces, the midfielder poses a significant goal threat for his team’s playmakers to exploit.
Andrey Santos Ball Progression
Some of Santos’ ball progression quality was on display in the passage of play shown in Figure 4.
This area of the midfielder’s game is a major strength, as this section of our analysis will explain.
Andrey Santos Progressive Pass Map
Santos mostly fires progressive passes forward from deep towards teammates, occupying space between the lines, as Figure 4 also shows.
Andrey Santos Ball Progression Map
Though some of the midfielder’s dribbles occur in deeper areas, which can sometimes result in dangerous turnovers, Santos mostly only engages in dribbles when he’s in possession of the ball in the final third.
In these cases, a loss of possession is typically less critical than it would be if it occurred inside his team’s half.
Santos uses his body to shield the ball from defenders when receiving, allowing him to get around the onrushing defender and carry into the resulting space behind them.
As the ball approaches Santos, he opens up his body (top-right image above).
His open body shape helps him shield from the defender behind him while turning into the space over his left shoulder.
Subsequently, Santos has lots of space to drive into, which he uses.
He takes the ball all the way to the halfway line, from where he can split the opposition’s defence open with a through ball.
In this case, the opponent marking Santos is already right on the midfielder’s back as the ball is played to him.
Still, the 20-year-old does well to open his body up while holding the defender off, enabling him to progress forward into the space behind the aggressive marker by rotating his open body — this time over his right shoulder.
Again, he carries the ball forward into space, reaching the halfway line.
He attracts more opponents towards him as he reaches this part of the pitch.
This helps his team because having several defenders drawn to one attacker equals additional space for other attackers.
The key, then, is for Santos to be able to find a teammate in space, which he manages excellently in the bottom-right image of Figure 8.
Santos can sometimes be caught in possession deep due to his confidence in his abilities with the ball at his feet.
However, he generally picks his moments to dribble out from the back quite nicely.
He has good ball-carrying ability, impressive strength, and an intelligent body shape.
All these skills help make Santos a significant threat in the ball progression phase to the opponent in possession and transition when receiving in midfield.
Andrey Santos Defending
The final section of our analysis focuses on Santos’ out-of-possession abilities.
In general, the Brazilian midfielder has proven quite active and reliable in his defensive duties for Strasbourg this season, leading to the impressive numbers displayed in Figure 2.
He’s an active front-foot presser and diligent in tracking back, while his tackling form tends to be fairly solid.
However, he can sometimes get beaten because he does not get enough of his body behind the tackle (i.e., just sticking a foot in), enabling the attacker to get past.
More often than not, however, this is not the case.
Andrey Santos Defensive Territory Map
Firstly, we can see the locations of all Santos’ defensive actions this season in Figure 9.
The midfielder has been about as active in the opponents’ half as he has in his own half this term, with an average defensive line height of just behind the centre circle.
Andrey Santos High Regains Map
The Strasbourg man has made 14 high regains this term and five dangerous recoveries.
He stands out for his contributions in defensive transitions, with 19 counterpressing recoveries for Le Racing this term.
Here, as the ball-carrying opponent lines up a pass to a teammate just behind Strasbourg’s attacking line, Santos is already moving forward to close the potential receiver down.
As the receiver tries to turn out, Santos is in a position to dispossess the midfielder, putting Strasbourg in a great position to counterattack.
This example shows Santos tracking back quickly and diligently into an intelligent space.
As the opponent makes his way inside, Santos puts himself in an excellent position to end the attack with a strong, standing tackle.
Santos’ sense for danger and intelligent positioning have proven crucial for Strasbourg’s defensive solidity in 2024/25.
These two in-game examples have provided some evidence of the midfielder’s ability in very different defensive contexts.
Conclusion
To conclude our Andrey Santos analysis, Santos is a well-rounded midfielder with desirable qualities in attack, possession and defence.
The soon-to-be Chelsea midfielder can add goals from midfield, ball progression abilities, and a substantial defensive contribution to his side.
Santos is not necessarily a master of any one skill or area of the game.
With his ability to arrive late into the box, receive on the half-turn even while heavily marked and position himself well defensively, he has got excellent qualities that allow him to contribute across the board for his team.
