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Nicolas Pepe: 2019/20 Performances

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Maybe

You're wrong, no?
Watched a compilation of his goals in France and it's like I've been saying all season.

He scored most of them inside the box coming onto his left foot or cutting in Vs 1 defender or running in behind or winning a penalty

He hasn't found himself in the final third or near the box with 1 defender to face up and a stretched opposition or been found when making runs (which he does often) in behind.

He's often scored when he's actually had any of those scenarios come up
He would probably work well for Bayern or Dortmund where he would constantly get into that position you're talking about, but Arsenal is way below that standard and we can't offer that to him.
We play some Stoke style of football for a while now and I'm starting to question if we are going to continue with that next season.

In my opinion, the mistake was made by Pepe joining Arsenal, not Arsenal buying Pepe. I guess the money call was more important for him because he is now at the age where he needed that big contract and Arsenal was desperate to bring him in.

The way we play it looks like we are more suited for Kuyt type of player
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
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Country: England
What are his strengths?
The first thing you’ll notice when watching Pépé in action is his directness. Every move he makes when in possession is forward-thinking.

The second is excellent close control which, when coupled with his pace, makes him a defender’s nightmare.

However, there is far more to his game than just penetrative dribbling and this season Pépé has become one of the best in France at threatening the opposition goal.

Whether he is fashioning shooting opportunities or being the finisher of chances created by teammates, his total scoring attempts per 90 of 4.62 is the third highest figure in Ligue 1. That explains, in part, why his xG (expected goals) for the campaign of 5.86 is the second most of any player in France’s top tier.

So dribbling ability, chance creation and a goal threat. It’s little wonder the queue of clubs chasing his signature continually grows.

What are his weaknesses?
No player is infallible and Pépé is no different. One area he could undoubtedly improve is his right foot, which would make him more of an unpredictable threat.

And his directness can sometimes get the better of him. Occasionally he can attempt to speed up an attack and lose possession instead of playing a patient pass.

His defensive work will also be need to be honed when he moves on to a bigger club, especially if he joins a side who utilise a high press.

Both these are minor issues, however, that can be improved upon with experience and coaching. What is certain is that he has the tools required to succeed at the highest level.

https://footballwhispers.com/blog/scout-report-nicolas-pepe-lille/

A pretty spot on scout report.

For the tl:dr gang - whoever is calling him to be played closer to goal could be right. However we can’t do that with Auba on the other side (and he has no problem trying to do the dirty work).

Reading several scouting reports on him when he joined, it seems his non chalant body language has plagued him his entire career very similar to Özil. I suspect he will always struggle here unless he changes his approach.

He clearly has the quality but the way the team is now, it’s almost as if we would be better off putting an energetic right back in his place instead.
 

Furious

Emery Gone, Telly Back On
https://footballwhispers.com/blog/scout-report-nicolas-pepe-lille/

A pretty spot on scout report.

For the tl:dr gang - whoever is calling him to be played closer to goal could be right. However we can’t do that with Auba on the other side (and he has no problem trying to do the dirty work).

Reading several scouting reports on him when he joined, it seems his non chalant body language has plagued him his entire career very similar to Özil. I suspect he will always struggle here unless he changes his approach.

He clearly has the quality but the way the team is now, it’s almost as if we would be better off putting an energetic right back in his place instead.

The first sentence there is a lie, from his Arsenal time at least. He's the least direct player in the squad with his horrendous decision making and dwelling on the ball.
 
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Macho

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The first sentence there is lie, from his Arsenal time at least. He's the least direct player in the squad with his horrendous decision making and dwelling on the ball.

His decision making is bad but he’s definitely not a pass back merchant.

He usually loses the ball trying to dribble past players or not making the correct pass, that’s due to him trying to force it forward, that article is absolutely correct. You’ve got directness and bad decision making confused somehow.
 

Furious

Emery Gone, Telly Back On
His decision making is bad but he’s definitely not a pass back merchant.

He usually loses the ball trying to dribble past players or not making the correct pass, that’s due to him trying to force it forward, that article is absolutely correct. You’ve got directness and bad decision making confused somehow.

Depends on the context though, obviously. I'd rather he passes back at times, and proceeds to position himself somewhere more dangerous.

He dwells on the ball too long, gets crowded by a couple of players, and we get stuck having to pass around, that's what I mean, that's not direct, that's simply infuriating to watch.
 

Macho

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I’d say he’s hella direct to be honest. Whether he actually pulls it off or influences the matches like he should - yeah those are valid critisms.

He absolutely needs to buck up his ideas because it’s not France, but even if he did all the basics right, I feel like our attack is too disjointed for our front players to consistently shine.

The facilities around him (right back and midfield) just aren’t right, but admittedly he’s not quite doing enough. I still rate him though think we have a player on our hands.
 

Gunners1616

Well-Known Member
Some comments here are really harsh. He hasn't been convincing enough this season but his goal contributions are not the worst and in many matches he was our most feared attacker with defenders targeting him and struggling to keep him under control.

Hopefully he can do a "Mahrez" who also struggled during his first season in Leicester (4 goals 3 assists in 30 league games) before completely exploding the next season.

Pepe had a similar first season (5 goals 6 assists in 29 league games) but without pre-season, with 3 different managers, some periods on the bench and a very poor team with no help from the right back.

We should let him adapt. He needs guidance, a stronger midfield for support, he need to work on his weak foot and he needs an 'Adebayor' pre-season type by adding few pounds of muscle.
 

Monstar-Gunn4r

Established Member
I dont understand the direct comments, like any time he gets the ball, he ignores clear passing opportunities for anyone else and will dally on the ball or move very slow forward. He is inclined to run towards our own goal as opposed to run the other way if he receives the ball to this feet - Willock pass to him against Liverpool and his messed up free kick against Sp**s. If he tries to run at defenders he loses it. This is all I'm seeing, I don;t know what anyone else is seeing.

Some of the comments saying he has to be played in around the box etc. and hed suit Bayern because of that... Bayern would never play that way. To effectively have 10 players on the pitch unless one of them is in his perfect position around the box in space he cant be used? Absoloute insanity at this level. Not that I think hes even consistent in that anyway, hes as inclined to take a few touches and waste the ball as he is to score a worldie.

If you are that one legged you need to be amazing at taking on and beating defenders consistently every match, hes a Podolski not a Robben imo. Not a terrible player, he'll just never work for us in this league, not for what we want to achieve.
 

DanDare

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Player:Saliba
Depends on the context though, obviously. I'd rather he passes back at times, and proceeds to position himself somewhere more dangerous.

He dwells on the ball too long, gets crowded by a couple of players, and we get stuck having to pass around, that's what I mean, that's not direct, that's simply infuriating to watch.

Yeah this is what I mean about him needing to be drilled and told either move forward with the ball or release and move

No standing still with the ball
 

Hunta

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Country: England
I don’t know how we improve him, should be seeing signs by now. Arteta has been credited with improving the likes of Sterling and Sane so if there’s anybody who can improve him it’s him.

When he first arrived here, particularly against Liverpool he looked a very good talent who needed to work on his composure, his general play since has been woeful though.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
Yeah, since the only forward balls were the panic clearances and miskicked passes from our CB's, there's not much any of us can comment here really, which includes people who consider him as a flop and people who are defending him.

Until Arsenal starts playing football again, there's not much we will see from this player. I think the club had a different vision of the football we would play at the time they were buying Pepe, which makes me think there's nothing wrong with Pepe, but there's a lot of things wrong with our passing and attacking.

People who are able to analyze the complete picture instead of isolating a single player will be able to understand why he can't deliver in this setup, the rest will complain for no reason.
 

HairSprayGooners

My brother posted it ⏩
I don’t know how we improve him, should be seeing signs by now. Arteta has been credited with improving the likes of Sterling and Sane so if there’s anybody who can improve him it’s him.

When he first arrived here, particularly against Liverpool he looked a very good talent who needed to work on his composure, his general play since has been woeful though.

The likes of Sterling in particular have KDB, Bernardo Silva and David Silva providing. We have quite literally nobody.

When we get some creativity in that midfield I will judge Pepe properly.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
The likes of Sterling in particular have KDB, Bernardo Silva and David Silva providing. We have quite literally nobody.

When we get some creativity in that midfield I will judge Pepe properly.
If you have to explain to someone why Sterling or Mahrez will perform better, you may want to ask yourself if it's worth even discussing anything with them :)
 

Monstar-Gunn4r

Established Member
Yeah, since the only forward balls were the panic clearances and miskicked passes from our CB's, there's not much any of us can comment here really, which includes people who consider him as a flop and people who are defending him.

I'm mainly judging him by what he does on the ball, he got it several times and wasted it each time, and two golden opportunities to break the Liverpool lines and put someone in behind their defence. Like I wouldnt bash him for the long balls that were being punted to him from kick outs, that was never gonna work and was a waste and it cant be pinned on him. Like I'm not a big fan of his off the ball stuff but I can somewhat live with it if he is compensating for that with what he does on the ball (I do think everyone else is putting in serious shifts and think this should be standard when we dont have the ball).

He might be better than he is showing but I'm not sure how you get him to his hypothetical level... hes been given lot of time on the pitch, do you keep playing him (funnily enough one of the biggest criticisms of Wenger was he would keep playing out of form players) or build up his confidence in training? I personally wouldn't be giving him as many minutes as he has been getting whether this is a drop in form or his actual level.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
I'm mainly judging him by what he does on the ball, he got it several times and wasted it each time, and two golden opportunities to break the Liverpool lines and put someone in behind their defence. Like I wouldnt bash him for the long balls that were being punted to him from kick outs, that was never gonna work and was a waste and it cant be pinned on him. Like I'm not a big fan of his off the ball stuff but I can somewhat live with it if he is compensating for that with what he does on the ball (I do think everyone else is putting in serious shifts and think this should be standard when we dont have the ball).

He might be better than he is showing but I'm not sure how you get him to his hypothetical level... hes been given lot of time on the pitch, do you keep playing him (funnily enough one of the biggest criticisms of Wenger was he would keep playing out of form players) or build up his confidence in training? I personally wouldn't be giving him as many minutes as he has been getting whether this is a drop in form or his actual level.
I'd keep him in the mix for now even if he's not most productive, just to keep him motivated when we start playing some better football. In my opinion, it's hard to be focused on the ball when you waste so much energy defending all the time and he can't click in the game until he feels the ball under his feet. The only thing that's certain is that he doesn't abuse only poor defenders, he can go past the best defenders in the world but some more support is needed in attack than what this team offers. You could tell that defenders really respect him and they usually double up to mark him. If defenders only need to focus on him, yeah, it's gonna be rough for him then and it will be a bad investment in that case.
 

baccy_man

Established Member
The times that i have seen Pepe with the ball he seems to try too many stepovers when he is trying to get in or around the penalty area and a lot of the time he seems to get his feet mixed up and loses the ball,
If he tried to keep his game a bit more simple until he gets his confidence up it might help his game to improve.
 

Furious

Emery Gone, Telly Back On
I'd keep him in the mix for now even if he's not most productive, just to keep him motivated when we start playing some better football. In my opinion, it's hard to be focused on the ball when you waste so much energy defending all the time and he can't click in the game until he feels the ball under his feet. The only thing that's certain is that he doesn't abuse only poor defenders, he can go past the best defenders in the world but some more support is needed in attack than what this team offers. You could tell that defenders really respect him and they usually double up to mark him. If defenders only need to focus on him, yeah, it's gonna be rough for him then and it will be a bad investment in that case.

They double on him because he takes ages on the ball.

You're making too many excuses for him.

He has shown enough to keep for sure, especially in this clusterfuck of a season, but a lot of the problems he has faced he can solve within himself.
 

Monstar-Gunn4r

Established Member
I'd keep him in the mix for now even if he's not most productive, just to keep him motivated when we start playing some better football. In my opinion, it's hard to be focused on the ball when you waste so much energy defending all the time and he can't click in the game until he feels the ball under his feet. The only thing that's certain is that he doesn't abuse only poor defenders, he can go past the best defenders in the world but some more support is needed in attack than what this team offers. You could tell that defenders really respect him and they usually double up to mark him. If defenders only need to focus on him, yeah, it's gonna be rough for him then and it will be a bad investment in that case.

Like I some what understand what you're saying but I regularly see him 1 on 1 and he fails to do anything against the worst defenders, like sometimes it takes defenders a while to learn a players habits when they're new to the league as well... he might just be predictable at this level where even the worst clubs have teams to analyse videos and players. Maybe it is jsut a confidence thing bu I just don't like the idea of trying to play a player in to form in matches that may matter. I have a hard time rating him as well because he does get time on the ball and should be one of our best outlets ala Sanchez used to be, maybe lose the ball half the time but the other half murder a defence... Pepe just seems to lose the ball.

I genuinely hope he turns it around but I dont think it will ever be because the team is setup right or he gets more time on the ball. If eh tunrs it around it will be because he can beat a player 1 on 1 when theyve pressed up high and theres acres of space behind, can make quick passes, stop dallying on the ball, learn to use his right foot, stop taking too much touches... this is all stuff I'd expect someone at this level to be able to do... and the problem is we've got 18 year olds who can.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
They double on him because he takes ages on the ball.

You're making too many excuses for him.

He has shown enough to keep for sure, especially in this clusterfuck of a season, but a lot of the problems he has faced he can solve within himself.
Yes, he does, but we didn't buy a perfect player like Messi, we bought Pepe. He will have his weaknesses and strengths and to make it work we need to play around his strengths, something we don't do atm.
Tbh, he shouldn't be our main attacking strength because of his weaknesses, but atm we don't have anyone else unless you think Nelson or Nketiah can take over.
Ideally, you would like to see 2 players with his ability on each wing and 1-2 players who are tidier on the ball and better with passing in midfield.
 

Fewtch

Özil at 10 And Emery Out
He’s been a marginal upgrade on Iwobi so far imo. Their numbers are identical although Pepe has scored some important goals, something Iwobi never did. His general play is significantly worse than Iwobi’s though.
For 72m that’s not good enough.
 
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