Nicolas Pepe: The Nutmeg Express!

[14Henry]

You basically ignored everything I’ve said because you’ve made your mind up. Fair enough.

I’ll leave you with this. We have one of the five best strikers on the planet and he has one goal from open play all season. You should look at a player’s surroundings before you write them off.

But Auba has been top goalscorer and 1 behind the top scorer over the last 2 seasons. I have seen Auba do it more often than not. I have seen significantly more bad and average games from Pepe than good ones. I trust Auba when it matters to make the difference and yes he hasnt been firing this season but its still early days. A couple of goals today and maybe 1 after the internationals and things look different.

 

[14Henry]

Walcott couldn't put in the balls Pepe does. Just casually forgetting Pepe's assist against City for Auba?

You're skirting round a very important point here. What's the difference between Auba and Pepe in what you're saying? Surely you also think Auba is basically a tall Theo Walcott?

He came on and got us going against Sheffield United, running from his own half to score a goal. But we'll also forget about that and just call him a poor footballer in games where most of our players have been poor.

You see what I mean though? You're just saying a players poor despite being giving a lot of evidence against that

I'm saying a player is poor because I have seen more bad and average games than good. I have seen things like tripping over the ball and a player who when he goes 1 v 1 looks lost. Like an 18 year old.

Auba won golden boot 2 years ago and was 1 behind last year. Aubas job is scoring goals and that he is very good at. Stevie wonder can see that.

What exactly is Pepe good at apart from shooting? Dribbling? No. He never looks in control of the ball. Carrying the ball forward at speed? Cant remember the last time I seen him make a lung busting 40 yard run with the ball. Tackling? No. Keeping possession. No.

As I said before.

If Pepe was put on the market for sale which clubs would be interested and for how much?

 

[14Henry]

Someone once said you can live for approx 4 years without water, but you can’t live for half an hour without confidence. Just think about it.

Try living 4 years without water and let me know know you get on.

If you cant perform and gain confidence destroying pub teams in the EL and weakened teams in the CC then what does that say?

 

[HairSprayGooners]

I'm saying a player is poor because I have seen more bad and average games than good. I have seen things like tripping over the ball and a player who when he goes 1 v 1 looks lost. Like an 18 year old.

Auba won golden boot 2 years ago and was 1 behind last year. Aubas job is scoring goals and that he is very good at. Stevie wonder can see that.

What exactly is Pepe good at apart from shooting? Dribbling? No. He never looks in control of the ball. Carrying the ball forward at speed? Cant remember the last time I seen him make a lung busting 40 yard run with the ball. Tackling? No. Keeping possession. No.

As I said before.

If Pepe was put on the market for sale which clubs would be interested and for how much?

Last time he made a run like that was against Sheffield United, where he scored. Lol.

If Pepe was put on the market for sale you'd see a lot of clubs interested. Mainly I think PSG would happily go in for him. We would get what his price would be with a big up front payment and such. Which is around £50M.

He is an elite footballer. Just needs the consistency and confidence. You go on about things you've seen to make you second guess him and think hes poor. But at the same time he has done things where you can see he is an elite footballer in terms of talent.

I'll say once again if he can't adapt to the league or team then its fair enough. But that doesn't make him ****. Same thing happened with Di Maria. Elite in Spain in France but poor in England with United at the time.

Let's see how this season plays out before digging the knife in shall we? Hes played 200 minutes of league football ffs. How can you expect any player to get consistency with such flip flop play time.

 

[14Henry]

Last time he made a run like that was against Sheffield United, where he scored. Lol.

If Pepe was put on the market for sale you'd see a lot of clubs interested. Mainly I think PSG would happily go in for him. We would get what his price would be with a big up front payment and such. Which is around £50M.

He is an elite footballer. Just needs the consistency and confidence. You go on about things you've seen to make you second guess him and think hes poor. But at the same time he has done things where you can see he is an elite footballer in terms of talent.

I'll say once again if he can't adapt to the league or team then its fair enough. But that doesn't make him ****. Same thing happened with Di Maria. Elite in Spain in France but poor in England with United at the time.

Let's see how this season plays out before digging the knife in shall we? Hes played 200 minutes of league football ffs. How can you expect any player to get consistency with such flip flop play time.

Pepe gets consistency and playing time the way Elneny is getting it. The way when Saka burst on the scene he got it. The way Holding seems to be keeping his place.

By making the most of every opportunity he gets and every single minute he plays doing what the manager demands and making a difference. Making himself so good and so effective and efficient that Arteta cant bench him. It's not easy but 100s of players play their way into starting line ups every week based on their last performance. And when they do get it in they make their mark on the game.

If Pepe plays today and has a brilliant overall game but doesnt score or assist I would be all for starting him next game. If Pepe has a poor game but scores one worldie I would be all for dropping him next game. It's not just goals and assists as anyone can score a goal. It's the 50/60 passes you have to make. The tackling and running back. The decision making. The doing your role so others can do theirs and making the team as one play better.

 

[TromsoGooner]

Last time he made a run like that was against Sheffield United, where he scored. Lol.

If Pepe was put on the market for sale you'd see a lot of clubs interested. Mainly I think PSG would happily go in for him. We would get what his price would be with a big up front payment and such. Which is around £50M.

He is an elite footballer. Just needs the consistency and confidence. You go on about things you've seen to make you second guess him and think hes poor. But at the same time he has done things where you can see he is an elite footballer in terms of talent.

I'll say once again if he can't adapt to the league or team then its fair enough. But that doesn't make him ****. Same thing happened with Di Maria. Elite in Spain in France but poor in England with United at the time.

Let's see how this season plays out before digging the knife in shall we? Hes played 200 minutes of league football ffs. How can you expect any player to get consistency with such flip flop play time.

If we were to sell Pepe now I would be shocked if we got 50M for him.

 

[14Henry]

If we were to sell Pepe now I would be shocked if we got 50M for him.

We wouldnt get anywhere near 50m for him. Be lucky to get 30m for him. And that's honest that's not trying to be funny about it but if Pepe was playing at another PL team and had done what he had for us would we buy him for 50m? No.

 

[TromsoGooner]

We wouldnt get anywhere near 50m for him. Be lucky to get 30m for him. And that's honest that's not trying to be funny about it but if Pepe was playing at another PL team and had done what he had for us would we buy him for 50m? No.

I agree, even 30M would be a surprise.

 

[DanDare]

Pepe in the final third with an unsettled defense is a killer just like Auba

We don't create that scenario for either of them anywhere near enough

 

[BigPoppaPump]

For all of Emery’s faults, he had the exact same attack minus Pepe firing. Same with Wenger. Arteta has to do more in this regard it’s just the truth.

Lowkey Kolasniac was more effective in the final third than Tierney he just didn't have the crossing, but people aren't ready for that conversation.

 

[Hleb's Sirush]

I'm not saying Pepe is on their level currently or that he will ever be, but he is the best we have for this position, and even if Arteta or some fans disagree on that, I think it would be OK to give a couple of starts to Willian and a couple for Pepe and see who does better. The situation is a disgrace really, and what's happening to Pepe now, will happen again in the future, maybe to Martinelli for example

this already happened actually. Before he got injured Martinelli was in great form, he probably had the best minutes to goals ratio in our team. But for no apparent reason he was hardly getting any serious game time anymore. An out of form Laca and Nketiah were more likely to get the nod.

 

[MikeVinna]

this already happened actually. Before he got injured Martinelli was in great form, he probably had the best minutes to goals ratio in our team. But for no apparent reason he was hardly getting any serious game time anymore. An out of form Laca and Nketiah were more likely to get the nod.

Yes this is true. And I’m really fearing for the worst. Martinelli is very much a player that takes risks to make something happen in attack. Mikel doesnt want a player to do that unless he gets a result out of it with every single move. That could go wrong very fast.

 

[Football Manager]

Pepe in the final third with an unsettled defense is a killer just like Auba

We don't create that scenario for either of them anywhere near enough

That's why he needs to create that scenario.
We have too many players whose game are based on waiting for scenarios to happen (auba, laca, nketiah, Özil....) They just wait for others to create possession, so they can make the final pass/final touch. We need to have every players on the pitch able to create for others. Not a bunch of shxt waiting things to happen for them, so they can showcase their world class final pass/touch.

 

[Football Manager]

Yes this is true. And I’m really fearing for the worst. Martinelli is very much a player that takes risks to make something happen in attack. Mikel doesnt want a player to do that unless he gets a result out of it with every single move. That could go wrong very fast.

What makes you think Arteta doesn’t want players to take risk?
Players are allowed to take risk/do skill moves as long as they are occupying the right space (the right grid) on the pitch.

 

[Macho]

What makes you think Arteta doesn’t want players to take risk?
Players are allowed to take risk/do skill moves as long as they are occupying the right space (the right grid) on the pitch.

Look at the type players he’s dropped

You don’t like them anyways so you haven’t noticed.

 

[Trilly]

But Auba has been top goalscorer and 1 behind the top scorer over the last 2 seasons. I have seen Auba do it more often than not. I have seen significantly more bad and average games from Pepe than good ones. I trust Auba when it matters to make the difference and yes he hasnt been firing this season but its still early days. A couple of goals today and maybe 1 after the internationals and things look different.

Because Auba is just that good.

Auba’s goal output has dropped big time since he was at Dortmund. He’s gone from being a 40 goal a season striker to a 30 goal guy and that’s a guy at the top of his game. If nothing changes he’s going to struggle to hit 30 this season.

If you can see the affect that our new system is having on Auba who is world class then you should be able to see how it’s affecting the guys who aren’t as good.

 

[Trilly]

Look at the type players he’s dropped

You don’t like them anyways so you haven’t noticed.

Flavour of the month Ziyech for example. Do people really think Arteta would be happy with Ziyech’s high risk Hollywood style of play?

In Arteta’s time here we’ve seen Ceballos, Xhaka and Pepe become very safe with their play, which in a way has made them all useless. I’ve also noticed that Saka has started to play quite safe as well.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Because Auba is just that good.

Auba’s goal output has dropped big time since he was at Dortmund. He’s gone from being a 40 goal a season striker to a 30 goal guy and that’s a guy at the top of his game. If nothing changes he’s going to struggle to hit 30 this season.

If you can see the affect that our new system is having on Auba who is world class then you should be able to see how it’s affecting the guys who aren’t as good.

He is also 31 years old you know. It is a good age to start speculating if his decline has already started.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Flavour of the month Ziyech for example. Do people really think Arteta would be happy with Ziyech’s high risk Hollywood style of play?

In Arteta’s time here we’ve seen Ceballos, Xhaka and Pepe become very safe with their play, which in a way has made them all useless. I’ve also noticed that Saka has started to play quite safe as well.

Ceballos was frustratingly safe under Emery too, and there was not one standout performance from him under Emery. At least with Arteta there's a handful of top performances you can point to with Ceballos in terms of being standout. Also Xhaka has been much better under Arteta too compared to most of his time under Emery where he made so many costly mistakes, and believe me a lot of them were very costly. Pepe, was largely ineffective too under Emery, again if you're comparing him to under Arteta he's been more effective under Arteta on the whole. Let's not forget Emery ended up dropping him too. He had that one standout performance under Freddie but after that most of his better performances have been under Arteta. I don't really understand the point here. We're acting as if these players were all massively effective prior to Arteta, but he's came in a neutered them when in most cases it's been the opposite? I don't want Xhaka to go back to the way he was, I get that he'd ping a lot of passes about and try some high risk passes, but as a deep midfielder there's just so many times when it's better just keeping it simple.

I mean you could argue Pep got Sterling to be a bit safer during his time at City. First season he struggled a bit but then he become way way more productive than he'd ever been as a result. Are we gonna pretend that what Pep did wasn't for Sterling's own benefit and he should've just let him play the way he was?

Statistically Arsenal players are pretty poor at keeping the ball in the final third. I'm not sure if encouraging bigger risk taking and giving them more freedom is the answer to those problems. There has to be a balance tho, like I've still seen Pepe take risks under Arteta, a lot of the times they don't seem to come off. Is Auba scoring the way he did vs Liverpool and Fulham not a massive risk taking low xG shots from outside the box? Does Laca not always try to do a clever trick or flick when he has the ball at his feet? The problem is that you still have to work within the confines of a team and showcase your talent, if you're incapable of doing that and need total freedom then to me that's a massive flaw in the game of the player.

 

[Trilly]

He is also 31 years old you know. It is a good age to start speculating if his decline has already started.

I don’t think so because we had a fitness coach recently say that Auba’s running numbers and natural conditioning is off the charts.

We’re all good in that regard I think.