Who is Reinildo and what will he bring to Sunderland - #onthewhistle - video Dailymotion

Sunderland Echo

Phil discusses Sunderland's move for former Atletico Madrid left back Reinildo Mandava and what he'll bring to Wearside.

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00:00This is a really interesting one because I think this shows the kind of pragmatism.

00:05We saw a little bit of it at the Championship level last summer,

00:08and we're definitely going to see it this summer at Premier League level,

00:11where Sunderland, you know, they're clearly going to invest their transfer fees

00:14and the bulk of their budget on younger players who have that development,

00:18who have that resale value, but they also want to have some experience

00:21and some depth of their squad.

00:23And I think Reynaldo at 31, a player with vast top-tier experience,

00:28both in La Liga, in the French top division, in the Portuguese top division.

00:32He's played Champions League football as recently as March for Atletico against Real Madrid.

00:37So I think he's just a bit of a pragmatic addition, a real no-brainer,

00:42in terms of someone who has an innate understanding of what it takes to succeed at the top level

00:46and who's going to bring that mentality to Sunderland and also offers a little bit of experience.

00:51In terms of his playing style, looking at the stats, watching his clips,

00:54the first thing to say is he is rapid.

00:56He had a major ACL injury about 18 months ago, but it doesn't seem to have impacted his pace.

01:03He seems to have been able to come back from that.

01:06And so both offensively and defensively, that's obviously a big asset he'll bring.

01:10I think it's clear that we're talking about a full-back who loves to defend.

01:13So Reynaldo is a left-back first and foremost.

01:16I think it's clear he prioritises that kind of game.

01:20Does bring a little bit of versatility.

01:21He has played centre-back quite a lot in his career, which I think is interesting.

01:24So even now, for Mozambique, he quite often plays as a centre-back.

01:29The season before last, when he came back from his ATL halfway through the season, roughly,

01:35Atletico had started playing with a back three.

01:38And Reynaldo played most of his football for the rest of that season on the left of the back three.

01:43So I think that tells you he's got a little bit of versatility,

01:45a little bit of experience that Sunderland and Lebris can lean on at different stages of the season.

01:49But it also reinforces that idea that he's a defender first and foremost.

01:53And I think it was really interesting that, you know, there was a lot of sort of goodwill

01:56and a lot of good wishes from the Atletico support when his departure was announced yesterday.

02:01It's clear that he built a good report because he was such a whole-hearted player

02:04and such a strong defender.

02:06And so hopefully he'll be a bit of a hit with the Sunderland crowd.

02:09So again, just digging into a little bit of his statistics.

02:12Last season, to be honest, statistically wasn't the best for him.

02:15As I say, whether that was partially because of sort of coming back from injury,

02:20he didn't play a huge amount of sort of regular football.

02:22So hopefully with a strong pre-season under his belt, he can sort of get right back to his best.

02:26But the areas where statistically he's sort of standing out are tackles and interceptions.

02:32In terms of his on-ball statistics, he has a very, very, very high pass completion rate,

02:37but doesn't rank as highly for things like progressive passes, passes into the final third,

02:42progressive carries, so essentially dribbling out with the ball.

02:46Again, I think that tells you that he can be trusted not to make many mistakes in possession,

02:50but he's not someone who takes a huge amount of risks.

02:52So not a full-back who's always sort of taking chances on the ball.

02:58He looks like he's someone who can keep it fairly simple,

03:00but defensively will rank really, really strongly.

03:02So if we go back to last season, when he came back from that ACL injury,

03:10in terms of the number of tackles he was making per game for Atletico Madrid,

03:14he was in the top 1% of centre-backs in La Liga for that.

03:18As I say, he was playing centre-back at the time.

03:20And in terms of his interceptions, he was in the top 2% of centre-backs in La Liga.

03:24So this is someone who tells you that he's excelling at the sort of defensive basics, if you like,

03:31and that is his real bread and butter.

03:33I thought it would be interesting because the one thing that did jump out to me was,

03:36OK, is that because he's playing for a team that really values defensive work,

03:41where maybe they're not asking their full-backs to do a huge amount of attacking work.

03:43I think anyone who's watched Diego Simeone's team over the recent years

03:47knows how much they value their sort of defensive shape.

03:49To be honest, it's not really the case.

03:53When I went back to look at the 2021 season,

03:56which is when Ray Nildo won the French top tier with Lille,

04:00a very, very similar picture, to be honest,

04:02in terms of the areas of the games where he's excelling.

04:04His pass completion was very, very good.

04:06His defensive statistics were excellent.

04:08Again, he was in the top 4% in terms of tackles he was making per 90 minutes

04:12in the French top tier that season.

04:15And he was in the top 1% for aerial duels that he was winning.

04:20So looking not just over the last sort of season or two,

04:23looking over, to be honest, the bulk of his career,

04:26he's a defender who is consistently producing

04:28some really, really impressive defensive numbers

04:30at the top level of the game.

04:32And so I kind of really like this

04:34because I think it just gives someone a bit of variety.

04:37We know they needed some full-back cover

04:38because when Dennis Serkin was injured last season,

04:41he obviously had to play players out of position.

04:43I think Ray Nildo's going to offer a really, really strong competition

04:46for players this next season.

04:47And as I say, something different.

04:49Someone who really revels and seems to thrive

04:52in the defensive side of the game.

04:54So there we go.

04:55That's a little bit of a summary of some of the research I've done.

04:59And if this is of any interest,

05:01I've written two considerably sort of longer pieces

05:04which goes into a lot more depth than I've kind of done here.

05:08You can read both of them on the Echo website.

05:10You can get to them via my Twitter and Blue Sky pages.

05:13So, yeah, if this is something that interests you,

05:16if you're interested in that kind of statistical analysis

05:18a bit more from what I've seen

05:20from watching these players' clips and stuff,

05:22then go and have a read them

05:23because I go into these kind of themes in a lot more depth.

05:25But hopefully this is...

Who is Reinildo and what will he bring to Sunderland - #onthewhistle

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