Ligue 1 is a constant conveyor belt of talent.
Every season, new stars emerge in France’s top flight, 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.
Both clubs are owned by BlueCo, and while Santos’ time with 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 initially joined Chelsea from Vasco da Gama for €12.5m in January 2023 before going back on loan until that summer.
The Brazilian midfielder then spent half a season on loan with Nottingham Forest without enjoying much game time before heading off to affiliate club Strasbourg this past summer.
Finally getting his breakthrough this term, Santos has been a revelation in the French top-flight this term.
Our scout report aims to provide some clear insight into Andrey Santos’ style of play in Liam Rosenior’s Strasbourg tactics this season.
Our analysis is broken up into three distinct sections, which allow us to provide a clear and concise breakdown of the 20-year-old midfielder’s game: Goalscoring, Ball Progression and Defending.
Who Is Andrey Santos?
Before progressing any further with the crux of this analysis, let’s answer the broader question: Who is Andrey Santos?
Andrey Santos Heatmap
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Figure 1 shows Andrey Santos’ heatmap for the 2024/25 Ligue 1 campaign thus far.
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 does also get 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
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Figure 2 shows Andrey Santos’ percentile ranks in key metrics for attack, possession and defending in 2024/25, contrasting his performance in the labelled metrics with that of other left-sided central midfielders in Europe’s top-five leagues this season.
Looking at the pizza chart, first and foremost, we can see that Santos is quite a well-rounded midfielder with no glaring weaknesses in his overall game.
His defensive involvement and success rates are quite 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, this term, the 20-year-old’s five league goals place him second in the goalscoring ranks among Ligue 1 midfielders this season.
Andrey Santos Shot Map
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Figure 3 displays Andrey Santos’ shot map for the 2024/25 Ligue 1 campaign thus far.
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.
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Figure 4 shows an example of Santos’ off-the-ball movement, which helped him get his name on the score sheet for this particular game.
Santos’ movement is the main reason behind his goalscoring threat.
The midfielder has an excellent ability to arrive 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.
Santos’ movement and threat are not sufficiently dealt with by the opposition defence, leading to the midfielder being in position to convert the ball into the net first-time 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 as a result of his late-arriving runs into the penalty box, as demonstrated by figure 4.
From these types of attacks, as well as from set-pieces, the midfielder provides a significant goal threat for playmakers on his team to utilise.
Andrey Santos Ball Progression
Some of Santos’ ball progression quality was on display in the passage of play shown in figure 4.
Overall, this area of the midfielder’s game is a major strength, as this section of our analysis will explain.
Andrey Santos Progressive Pass Map
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Figure 5 displays Santos’ progressive pass map for the 2024/25 Ligue 1 campaign to date.
Santos mostly fires progressive passes forward from deep towards teammates, occupying space between the lines, as figure 4 also showed.
Andrey Santos Ball Progression Map
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Figure 6 displays Santos’ ball progression map for the 2024/25 Ligue 1 campaign to date.
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.
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Figure 7 shows an example of Santos progressing the ball via a dribble from deep inside his own half.
Santos is great at using his body to shield the ball from defenders when receiving, which allows him to get around the onrushing defender and carry into the resulting space behind them.
As the ball gets closer to 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.
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Figure 8 shows another example of Santos shielding the ball from the opponent and progressing forward, similar to figure 7.
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, making it to the halfway line.
He attracts more opponents towards him as he reaches this part of the pitch.
This helps his team because if several defenders are drawn to one attacker, this equals additional space for other attackers.
The key, then, is for Santos to be able to find a teammate in space, which we can see 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 well.
He has good ball-carrying ability, in addition to impressive strength and an intelligent body shape.
All these skills help make Santos a major 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 when performing his defensive duties for Strasbourg this season, leading to the impressive numbers on display 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, at times, 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
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Figure 9 displays Andrey Santos’ defensive territory map for the 2024/25 Ligue 1 season to date.
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
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Figure 10 displays Andrey Santos’ high regains map for the 2024/25 Ligue 1 season to date.
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.
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Figure 11 shows an example of Santos occupying his left-sided central midfield position in Strasbourg’s mid-block.
Here, as the ball-carrying opponent lines up a pass to a teammate just behind Strasbourg’s attacking line, Santos is already making a move forward to close the potential receiver down.
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Figure 12 shows how Santos shuts down this attempt at ball progression.
As the receiver tries to turn out, Santos is in position to dispossess the midfielder, putting Strasbourg in a great position to counterattack.
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Figure 13 shows an example of Santos tracking back to close down an opponent as they try to cut in from the wing and attack Strasbourg’s goal inside the final third.
This example shows Santos tracking back quickly and diligently into an intelligent space.
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Figure 14 shows how Santos ultimately puts a definitive stop to this attack.
As the opponent makes his way inside, Santos has put himself in an excellent position to firmly 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 scout report, 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 strong 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.
Fintan O'Reilly is the site lead for TFA.
Primarily writing about French football, he's passionate about all things scouting, recruitment and tactics.