Enzo Maresca’s perception of midfielder “knocked on its ass” by his superb showing in the pivot claims pundit | OneFootball

Chelsea’s team sheet for the game against Palmeiras originally had Reece James lining up in midfield, but an injury in the warmup meant that by kick off it was Andrey Santos who was in the mix.

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Andrey Santos grabs chance to shine

Andrey Santos celebrates his latest Chelsea appearance. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)

Until that moment he had only had chances off the bench, and not many at that. So it was important he seized the opportunity of starting – and he did just that. As they pointed out on the London is Blue podcast, he was superb in the middle of the pitch and the stats backed that up:

“56 touches, 90% pass accuracy, 6 of 9 ground duels won, 3 of 3 aerial duels won, one clearance, one interception, five tackles, some great passing forwards in this game,” Nick Verlaney pointed out.

“He dominated Ligue 1 in duels and tackles, so it’s not a surprise. He had 110 [tackles] last year at Strasbourg. He is a damn good player, and this notion that I think a lot of people have that he can only be Enzo Fernandez’s understudy in that forward midfielder position was completely knocked back on its ass in this game, because he clearly can play this pivot role. This is a really flexible type of talent. He can turn in the pivot, he can make the long pass, and they barely laid a glove on him. He was excellent.”

You can see them speaking about Santos in the clip embedded here:

Santos grabs chance with both hands

We couldn’t agree more with all of that. Like everyone else we were pleading for Santos to get a chance, and we’re glad he took it. Showing that he can play comfortably in a deeper role, despite Enzo Maresca’s earlier claims, was an added bonus.