The Beast is back! But how does he compare to his Spurs teammates?

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After Sandro started his first game of 2014 against Dnipro, we take a look at what the powerful Brazilian can offer the Spurs midfield.

With many fans and pundits pointing to Sandro’s season ending injury last January as the reason Tottenham didn’t make the Champions League qualification positions, the club will be delighted to welcome their combative Brazilian back from his latest injury, a hamstring tear sustained in December’s loss to Liverpool.

Much has changed at the club since then, with Tim Sherwood replacing Andre Villas-Boas as manager.

In the 14 games since that fixture, Spurs have lost five matches, though have gone down just twice in the league. Compare this to the fourteen games Sandro featured in before the Liverpool loss, which saw just two defeats, and it is easy to see that the Brazilian offers something to the Tottenham midfield that perhaps no other player does.

Looking at the Opta stats of Sandro and the rest of the Tottenham central midfielders should indicate whether he is in fact someone Tim Sherwood should be eager to persevere with, or whether his role in the team is something Spurs can afford to be careful with.

The above table shows that Sandro has the second most impressive ball recovery stats of the Tottenham midfield, recovering it once every 13 minutes, second only to Mousa Dembele, who has the most appearances of anyone. Winning the ball from the opposition is something of particular value as Spurs approach matches against rivals Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in March.

As with ball recovery, Sandro is second only to Dembele when it comes to the frequency with which he loses possession, with other players losing the ball much more often in relation to their minutes played.

Sandro is also one of the strongest when it comes to intercepting passes from the opposition, with his most obvious alternative, Etienne Capoue, coming out top in this category. Interestingly, Dembele really struggles here.

The statistics indicate that Sandro is arguably Tottenham’s outstanding midfielder from a defensive perspective, and alongside Mousa Dembele, will offer a genuine wall for any opposition midfield to negotiate.

Paulinho appears to be the least capable defensively, though this may be due in part to his tendency to play in support of the lone striker, while special mention must go to young midfielder Nabil Bentaleb, who alongside his outstanding passing skills finishes third in each of the above defensive categories.

image: © sandroraniere