Beauty and The Beast: Analysis of Paulinho and Sandro’s midfield partnership

Gareth Bale’s big money move to Real Madrid on deadline day provided Tottenham with a healthy wad of cash to invest back into the squad, and while Andre Villas-Boas went about reinforcing the wings and his strike force, it was the centre of midfield that looked the strongest when his shopping spree concluded.

Etienne Capoue was drafted in from Toulouse to thicken the shield in front of the back four, while Christian Eriksen arrived from Ajax to add some creativity. The summer signing who has settled best, though, is Brazil international Paulinho, who has cemented his side in the middle of the Spurs set up. The 25-year-old has played every minute for the north London side in the Premier League this season and was again called upon for Spurs’ trip to Villa park on Wednesday, this time pairing up with compatriot Sandro who was making his first league start of the season.

Tottenham’s best performing midfielders this season

The task in hand was simple; win the battle against Villa’s midfield trio of Ashley Westwood, Karim El Ahmadi and Fabian Delph and restrict the latter’s bursts up field. Paul Lambert is starting to see some return from his hard work last season and Delph has been integral to that, racking up a Performance Score bettered by only Ron Vlaar in the Villa ranks.

Villa’s impressive away record has been founded on their effectiveness on the break, but at home they have struggled to generate any sort of momentum and Villas-Boas instilled his Brazilian pairing to ensure that continued. While neither conjured up a performance that dazzled the crowd, what they did do is keep Lambert’s creative outlets shackled.

Between them they won 4/6 of their tackles and pressed the Villa midfield into mistakes. Andreas Weimann, who was operating on Sandro’s side of the pitch, struggled to get any sort of foothold in the game because of the presence of the bullish 24-year-old, and completed just 12/20 of his passes. His frustration was telling with his shooting, also, with four of his six shots coming from outside of the box, all of which were off target.

While Sandro anchored the midfield and threw himself about in front of the defence, Paulinho was the more explosive with the ball at his feet. The 25-year-old ventured forward when needed and even had three shots at goal, two of which hit the target, and produced a much more scattered heat map than his team-mate.

The beauty of the partnership is that both players opt to keep things simple – pressing the opposition, stripping them of possession and releasing the ball to a more creative outlet in the side. Paulinho accumulated a pass completion of 88% from his 52 attempted, while Sandro completed 41 out of 51.

Sandro’s athleticism compliments Paulinho’s technical ability brilliantly and the way the former recovers the ball when opponents are in possession is integral to how Villas-Boas demands his side to play. As expected, Spurs dictated the game in terms of possession and they also bettered the home side’s pass success, and with Sandro breaking up the play it’s no shock to see the capital side also took the crown on tackle success.

While Mousa Dembele has been Spurs’ strongest player this season in terms of Squawka performance rating, Paulinho has quietly gone about his business to maximum effect. There is a sense of composure when he collects the ball and an assurance when he is squeezing the life out of the opposition, and the frantic style that Sandro provides ties in with that effortlessly. The two click, and Aston Villa found that out at the weekend.