For most supporters who watched Manchester United’s pre-season friendlies, one conclusion was hard to miss: in Andrey Santos, the club had brought in a hugely gifted midfielder.
The Brazilian made an immediate impression. He added calmness and authority to the midfield, kept asking for the ball, dropped deep to collect it, and showed an outstanding range of passing.
Many United fans also picked up on the strong understanding he swiftly built with Mason Mount. The two combined to form an energetic and productive partnership in the centre of the pitch.
With both having missed the World Cup and both featuring prominently across pre-season, a Mount-Santos midfield appeared the obvious option for Michael Carrick at the beginning of the season, while Kobbie Mainoo and Youri Tielemans were eased in gradually. But an injury to Mount disrupted that plan.
Carrick then turned to a Santos-Tielemans combination, but it never truly clicked, neither against AC Milan nor against Hull City. When the time came to choose between Tielemans and Santos in order to bring Mainoo into the side, Santos was the one left out, even though he had performed better than the Belgian against Hull City.
The Mainoo-Tielemans pairing has since become a major success. With those two operating in central midfield, United’s engine room has gone from being a concern to becoming one of the team’s strengths.
With that duo now seemingly first choice, Santos could understandably feel a sense of déjà vu, remembering the lack of minutes he experienced behind Enzo Fernandez and Moisés Caicedo at Chelsea. But before the Stamford Bridge crowd can point out that the Samba star left only to find himself in a similar position, Carrick has already offered a clue about how he sees Santos fitting in.
Speaking after United’s emphatic Champions League victory over Sabah Baku, the Manchester United head coach said via BBC:
“It’s nice to get Mason [Mount] and Andrey [Santos]. There are some good connections, and we have played some good football through the middle of the pitch.”
That comment said plenty about United’s midfield thinking, and the reason is clear.
Some United supporters would have been concerned that Santos, after being left on the bench for the previous two matches, might again be overlooked when they saw the starting XI for the meeting with Sabah Baku. It was exactly the kind of match in which he merited an opportunity to show his quality, just as Leny Yoro did.
Thankfully for Santos, by the 65th minute Carrick had gone back to the Santos-Mount midfield pairing that had worked so effectively during pre-season, after Mount replaced Tielemans at half-time and Santos came on for Mainoo in the 64th minute.
Most importantly, the pair delivered. Their understanding returned straight away, which helps explain Carrick’s view that United’s standard did not fall after the substitutions.
All of this points to Carrick believing he now has two separate midfield partnerships available to him.
Depending on the opposition and the demands of the fixture, he can use either combination with confidence that it will do the job, while also making sure each player receives sufficient minutes. That should mean Santos still gets the regular game time he found difficult to come by at Stamford Bridge.
Of course, the eventual return of Carlos Baleba from injury is likely to alter these combinations again. Even so, what is evident at present is that Carrick already has reliable pairings in place, even if further options could still develop as the season progresses.
