Nicolas Pepe: The Nutmeg Express!

[HairSprayGooners]

Ah cool, so you watch him not beat a defender 1 on 1 every week but he somehow does?

I dont upset you but you comment on every one of my posts mentioning Pepe

Yeah tbf he didn't beat 3 defenders and take them out the game twice in the video posted for yesterdays game...

 

[Monstar-Gunn4r]

Yeah tbf he didn't beat 3 defenders and take them out the game twice in the video posted for yesterdays game...

You mean where he dawdled so much they were in position but used physicality & a bit of pace to push through? Im more on about the Rudiger and Alonso opportunities.... the actual 1 on 1s.

 

[The_Playmaker]

No chance, ESR makes runs regularly, he was doing it last season. You don't get instructed to run and not run, you either do it or you don't. You don't get instructed to make poor decisions either.

It's definitely instruction. It's how he uses ESR. Overloads in wide areas. More so on the right. You can even see it in pre season. ESR constantly fills in for the RB.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

No, no big club or world class manager would have to play these players consistently so they'd learn better instead of being forced to do things constantly.

No big club would hire Arteta and let him stay this long either, but here we are.

 

[Macho]

One for you Pepe loses the ball merchants. He got tackled once.

 

[tap-in]

With the majority of you pointing out the negatives already including making stuff up entirely (like losing the ball), yeah I don't need to point out the negatives.

The only negative for me is he's fit and playing and gets blamed for this sh*t, I'd rather he sat out to be quite honest and leave the AM favourites to it.

I don't have any reason to single out Pepe, we have lots of poor players. As I said it was the Pepe thread, I'm not going to post stuff about Xhaka, that's for the Xhaka thread. Its not like I only post negative stuff about Pepe. And get this, I even post positive stuff about Pepe when he's done something positive. Yesterday he didn't!

 

[Atlas]

Pepe isn’t the problem come on. He’s got the worst collection of right backs in the league behind him and is part of a completely dysfunctional attack.

 

[Trilly]

Pepe isn’t the problem come on. He’s got the worst collection of right backs in the league behind him and is part of a completely dysfunctional attack.

Can’t wait till we sign a decent RB, we’ve suffered for years and I think even a half decent one will make a huge difference.

 

[GunnerShy]

Thought he was decent against Chelsea. Played some really good balls. Runs ignored in others.

People want to stick Saka on the right, ESR on the left and Ødegaard in the middle. That's a lot of goalscoring burden on the Striker.

 

[Xln]

Thought he was decent against Chelsea. Played some really good balls. Runs ignored in others.

People want to stick Saka on the right, ESR on the left and Ødegaard in the middle. That's a lot of goalscoring burden on the Striker.

Remember the chance that Saka blew?
Pepe made a run on the right side and Saka just lost the ball trying to 1v1/shoot instead of giving the ball to Pepe. Pepe would have buried the ball in the goal at that distance

 

[Geofranco]

N


No matter how much drivel you post, ESR/Saka/Martinelli make poor decisions on a consistent basis. But this is allowed as they're young, the issue is constantly having to start them game after game.

Martinelli has barely played since Arteta took over. ESR only started getting game time in December 2020 and when he did, the entire form of the team went up. He is not a playmaker, but someone who raises the tempo and speeds everything up. Saka was the best player on the team in 20/21 and was top 3 best players on the team in 19/20. He has always been known as a young player that makes good decisions, that is one of the best attributes he has. Arteta is a safe manager and would not be starting Saka so often if he was constantly making poor decisions.

 

[Maybe]

Martinelli has barely played since Arteta took over. ESR only started getting game time in December 2020 and when he did, the entire form of the team went up. He is not a playmaker, but someone who raises the tempo and speeds everything up. Saka was the best player on the team in 20/21 and was top 3 best players on the team in 19/20. He has always been known as a young player that makes good decisions, that is one of the best attributes he has. Arteta is a safe manager and would not be starting Saka so often if he was constantly making poor decisions.

ESR for some reason stopped making runs off the ball, which was the most important trait in his game. I won't go into a debate if that is because of Arteta, but I wish he plays again like that.
You are right, he is not a playmaker, but I can't see him on the wing either, and we don't play with two 8's which I think would be the best role for him

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Honestly I'm fairly indifferent to Pepe. There are things I like about him and things that concern me but he is kind of number 2 on the Arsenal totem poll after Xhaka in terms of getting criticism which outweighs how poor he was after losses.

Something I've noticed is that he makes quite a lot of good runs in behind that get turned down. When it's Saka making those runs Xhaka or whoever will 8/10 try to play him in. Kind of weird.

 

[A_G]

Can't believe Nicolasinac Pepe didn't just hit this into Auba first time for a tap in

 

[Maybe]

Can't believe Nicolasinac Pepe didn't just hit this into Auba first time for a tap in

Yeah, would be a decent offside as well. Nicolasinac

 

[A_G]

Yeah, would be a decent offside as well. Nicolasinac

Auba was only offside after he took a touch, if the cross came in first time I think he would have been okay.

 

[Maybe]

Auba was only offside after he took a touch, if the cross came in first time I think he would have been okay.

I mean, we are watching this image and still not 100% if it would be offside and expect players to understand it in a split of a second, but I'll go with you that he should've at least try it. You can make 20 images like that one per game, but there was a lot more obvious example of players not passing it to Pepe or they would just run around with their heads down (ESR and Martinelli in particular). We get like 5 meaningful attacks per game, and we expect players to do too much from such a low volume

 

[Macho]

Auba was only offside after he took a touch, if the cross came in first time I think he would have been okay.

Pepe should have definitely hit that first time, but if we were to talk about what these players should be doing we would be here all day.

This was a friendly, but we've seen him slow down play which is a known criticism of Nicolasinac, so I can't tell if you're on the wind up.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Want to see him in a 343 with a new manager. His problem is that he can do much 1v1 or against compact defences (reason Bayern didn't sign him). But he's fast and a very good finisher. If we can get him closer to goal faster, which should be the case with less defensive responsibility in a 343, he could be better.

 

[Geofranco]

ESR for some reason stopped making runs off the ball, which was the most important trait in his game. I won't go into a debate if that is because of Arteta, but I wish he plays again like that.
You are right, he is not a playmaker, but I can't see him on the wing either, and we don't play with two 8's which I think would be the best role for him

He will have to be on the wing as some sort of wide playmaker type like Nasri, Hleb and Rosicky. But he def needs to get end product. Don't think he has the defensive discipline and distribution to be an 8. He is an attack minded player, but hasn't translated his shooting from youth level to first team level. Players like ESR and Saka will have a lot of pressure on them to produce end product cause of poor management. It's like a blessing and curse of playing in a dysfunctional team. You get more opportunities, but also more pressure to perform.