Parker has been brilliant, especially at the start of the season, but it's hard to deny our attacking play had become stultified in recent weeks. Maybe he was beginning to get burn out but over the last couple of months Parker's habit of constant tippy-tappying and backward passing was positively obstructing our forward momentum, allowing defences far too much opportunity to get organised and disrupt our attacks.
Sandro's return (and return to form) has changed all that because when he's not bombing forward and providing a direct goal threat himself, he's perfectly happy to give the ball to Modric and leave him to work his magic. This ensures our attacking moves keep flowing and denies defences critical time to close ranks.
One big caveat though, in the last couple of games the whole team has started playing better, especially Modric, Lennon, VdV and (give him credit), Walker. So maybe our revival would have happened anyway. But who knows how much it is down to the liberating impact of Sandro?
