Santos FC’s first-ever taste of the second tier of Brazilian football only lasted for one season as Robinho Lazaró spearheaded the club to its maiden Série B title at the first time of asking. The big task now was for Lazaró to prepare an understrength side to try and stay in Série A.
That task wasn’t aided by two of his best players announcing “they were too big for the club.” So Lazaró wasted no time selling centre back João Basso to Paranaense for £5.75m and troublesome striker Alfredo Morelos to Cuiabá for a respectable £4.5m. They also had 2 players retire and 15 left at the ends of their contracts, which saw the new campaign start with just 14 first-teamers. However, they were bolstered by returning loanees Yeferson Soteldo and Vinicius Zanocelo.
The first signing of the Lazaró era was a very different striker to Morelos. 6ft 4in Thierry Henry Santos Souza arrived for £1.1m from Sao Paulo, and he could become our first Ginga candidate. Lazaró also added extra midfield steel in Juan Manuel Zapata for £300k from Envigado and promoted homegrown midfielder Izaquiel Penchel, Venezuelan midfielder Nicola Profeta and winger João Victor.
Lazaró opted to change up his approach for this season. He adapted to a narrow 4-3-3 that continued to place emphasis on the marauding full backs with two holding midfielders, two attacking midfielders in behind Henry, and a centre midfielder bombing forward to support the attack.
Solid State Champs Campaign
Less than 2 months separated the end of Série B and the start of Campeonato Paulista Sicredi. But the new approach started nicely as Soteldo scored on his return and midfielder Nonato bagged a brace in a 4-1 thumping of Botafogo (SP). Henry got his first goals with a brace on his home debut downing Ferroviária 4-0, and scored again to crown a superb 3-1 win over rivals Palmeiras. An exciting moment saw 16-year-old Penchel make his Santos debut as Nonato scored two more in a 3-0 success at Oesta Barueri. They finally suffered defeat at Corinthians but went on to finish 3rd and lost heavily to Palmeiras in the semis. But the most positive news was Henry being the league’s 3rd top scorer with 9 goals, only behind Corinthians’ Yuri Alberto and Memphis Depay.
Stepping Up To Série A
The bookies backed Santos to stay up, predicting a 14th-place finish at 50/1 to win Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Assai. Flamengo are huge 2/1 favourites followed by holders Palmeiras (13/5), Corinthians (15/2), Botafogo (18/1) and Sao Paulo and Athlético Paranaense (20/1). And the Santos board are looking for Lazaró to avoid relegation. And a reminder on how the Série A works, the top 7 qualify for Copa Libertadores, 8th to 13th reach Copa Sudamericana and the bottom 4 go down.
Santos returned to the top flight with a de Saudade Derby at home to reigning champions Palmeiras and they offered no surprises in a disappointing 3-0 defeat. Another home game followed and they responded in style as Henry, a Soteldo double and a Zapata beauty sealed a 4-1 thumping of relegation favourites Avaí. Another massive challenge followed as they went to Flamengo and only lost a close game 1-0 to Santos youth product Gabriel Barbosa’s late penalty.
Aweek of big home performances saw Soteldo bag a brace to down Ceará 4-1 before Henry bagged a first-half hat trick to smash Atlético Mineiro 4-0. An improved away effort saw Nonato earn a point at Botafogo and Zanocelo’s first goal earned a 1-0 win at home to Bahía. And that decent start saw the Santos board hand Lazaró a new 5-year contract to the end of 2029.
Lazaró celebrated his new deal with Penchel getting his first career assists for Nonato and Henry in a 2-1 win at Vasco before Zapata’s pair of long-range strikes and a Zanocelo assist hat trick earned a 3-1 win at Fortaleza. A defeat followed at home to Gremio, but a really exciting moment saw youth product Nílton bag his first two goals in a 4-1 win at bottom-side Cruzeiro. Their form dropped off a little, but Santos found themselves 4th after 19 games, undoubtedly skewed by other team’s continental commitments.
Shocking Brasil’s Best Teams
Santos’ positive start meant they were well clear of relegation – with a 15-point gap to the dropzone. Lazaró’s new mission was to secure a top-13 place and qualify for at least Copa Sudamericana. And the second half of the season began with two huge statement wins. First, they went to Palmeiras, dominated by 24 shots to 8, and won 2-0 through a Soteldo penalty and Henry’s header. But arguably even better than that was hosting Flamengo, having 11 shots to 1 and scoring 4 through Soteldo, Henry and Luan Peres headers and Zanocelo’s neat finish. Santos suddenly found themselves 2nd (albeit having played 4 more than many teams around them) and had their fans dreaming.
Santos continued to play well, even as their form inevitably faded and the other teams caught up on matches. Henry bagged back-to-back braces to earn a 2-1 win at Atlético Mineiro and 2-2 at home to Botafogo to win August player of the month. But with 10 games remaining, Santos still found themselves in the Libertadores qualification battle and virtually guaranteed Sudamericana.
Henry’s great form continued, scoring the only goal at Bahia and twice in a wild 4-4 at home to his former club Sao Paulo. A tired team struggled against title challengers Paranaense and Vasco da Gama and Sandry and Zapata strikes earned a 2-1 win at surprise relegation battlers Fluminense. But defeats to Fortaleza and Gremio saw them slide down the table but confirmed Sudamericana qualification. Henry scored two more as they beat Cruzeiro 4-2 before concluding the campaign with a defeat at leaders Corinthians and a 0-0 against Goiás, who survived as a result.
Santos finished 8th with 59 points after 17 wins, 8 draws and 13 defeats, scoring 66 and conceding 54. The league saw two big shocks as 2023 Libertadores winners Fluminense and 2021 Brazilian champions Atlético Mineiro were relegated. But the biggest news was Henry winning Rei do Gol with 20 goals in 37 games, scoring 3 more than Enner Valencia. While Soteldo was named Best Foreign Player and Craque do Brasileirão – Melhor Meia (Brazilian star – best attacking midfielder), Zanocelo won Melhor Volante (best midfielder), and Nathan won Melhor Lateral-Direito (best right back).
Exciting Times At Santos
Two years on from relegation, Santos were very much a club on the rise having secured promotion then a top-half finish. This season’s star man was undoubtedly Henry, who scored 29 in 49, along with Nonato’s 15 goals and 3 assists, Soteldo’s 14 goals and 8 assists, Zanocelo’s club-high 19 assists with 6 goals, Nathan’s 15 assists, left back Kevyson’s 10 assists and Zapata’s 7 goals.
Henry is also one of four players to make our first Ginga tracker, using the criteria in the chart below (click to enlarge the image):
In addition to the on-field achievements, Santos fans had a “golden generation” to get excited about. Lazaró’s second youth intake delivered 4 players with 5-star potential, 2 with 4.5-star potential and 5 with 4-star potential. The best new talent, contrary to the head of youth development’s opinion, was goalkeeper Mazinho, along with midfielders Lucas Rosado and Charles, left back Rodrigo Passos, centre backs Pedro Henrique Peres and Daniel Maffia, and winger João Paulo.
These were very exciting times at Santos, but there was likely to be plenty of change over the off-season. Plenty of players were either out of contract and wanting out, and Lazaró was keen to promote more of his exciting youngsters.
Could Santos build on this season’s 8th-place finish? Join us next Monday to find out!
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