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Nicolas Pepe: The Nutmeg Express!

What would you do with Pepe?

  • Keep him for the foreseeable future

  • Give him one more season to prove himself

  • Sell if you can get a significant fee, keep otherwise

  • Sell at any price


Results are only viewable after voting.
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Big Poppa

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: USA

Player:Saliba
He is 25 years old. He has been playing outfield for 10 years.

My biggest concern is that his football understanding and positional play is seriously lacking most of the time.

It will be intresting to see if Arteta can improve that this season.

He definitely doesn’t seem to have the best comprehension of time and space. His step overs are useless. Remind me of Robinho. He just needs to simplify his game and be more direct.
 

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
Seems like most have already given up on him. Even the few left who think he will come good do so more in faint hope rather than any expectation. I still think there is a really terrific footballer in there. It obviously is taking much more time than expected, he still is struggling with certain aspects of playing for this team/adapting to the league.

Two things I noticed, which imo bodes well for the future is:

1. since his transfer to us it is fair to say things haven't gone according to plan, certainly not the way he probably thought it would go. Being bought for a record amount of money, which bought a level of expectation and scrutiny he has never experienced before, playing under 3 different managers. Struggling to adapt but every time he seemed to get some kind of rhythm being benched. Then we appoint Arteta, a young manager with huge potential but again it just so happens he isn't really that keen on players like Pepe. I can imagine Pepe wondering if the world is conspiring to put a spanner after spanner in his way to become successful here. It would have been easy to give up, he is on a long contract with big wages, he is set for the past part of half a decade. Only giving it all when your contract is running out. He hasn't done any of that, it hasn't demoralised him. He seems to be putting in more work than ever. I see him back tracking all the time now something he didn't do often before. Every time he seems to have been written off he comes back into the team. For that reason I don't rule him out winning his place back soon.

2. The second thing is he is clearly very eager to improve/listen to the coaches advice. He is trying to change certain things he always did instinctively. Like if he got the ball before, first thought was always to take on his man, head down and dribble past as many players till he reached the goal. If you watch him now you will notice he doesn't do that anymore, nor does he hold onto the ball for long. Doesn't try to dribble past a player unless there is space behind them (this isn't necessarily a good thing, I don't want him to be too safe). Which is why now he doesn't lose the ball as much.

People might say I'm clutching at straws here but I really think there is tremendous potential in this guy. It would be such a shame if we could never unlock it.
 

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
You know it's a massive red flag when people have to jump through so many hoops and keep reassuring themselves it will be fine. Guys like Alexis and Aubameyang just came in and did the job straight away you didn't need to write essays to show what made them good.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
You know it's a massive red flag when people have to jump through so many hoops and keep reassuring themselves it will be fine. Guys like Alexis and Aubameyang just came in and did the job straight away you didn't need to write essays to show what made them good.
Lol we’ve had too many sick players who took a season to adapt though?
Not every signing comes in and hits the ground running that’s Man Utd logic.
 

scytheavatar

Established Member
Seems like most have already given up on him. Even the few left who think he will come good do so more in faint hope rather than any expectation. I still think there is a really terrific footballer in there. It obviously is taking much more time than expected, he still is struggling with certain aspects of playing for this team/adapting to the league.

Two things I noticed, which imo bodes well for the future is:

1. since his transfer to us it is fair to say things haven't gone according to plan, certainly not the way he probably thought it would go. Being bought for a record amount of money, which bought a level of expectation and scrutiny he has never experienced before, playing under 3 different managers. Struggling to adapt but every time he seemed to get some kind of rhythm being benched. Then we appoint Arteta, a young manager with huge potential but again it just so happens he isn't really that keen on players like Pepe. I can imagine Pepe wondering if the world is conspiring to put a spanner after spanner in his way to become successful here. It would have been easy to give up, he is on a long contract with big wages, he is set for the past part of half a decade. Only giving it all when your contract is running out. He hasn't done any of that, it hasn't demoralised him. He seems to be putting in more work than ever. I see him back tracking all the time now something he didn't do often before. Every time he seems to have been written off he comes back into the team. For that reason I don't rule him out winning his place back soon.

2. The second thing is he is clearly very eager to improve/listen to the coaches advice. He is trying to change certain things he always did instinctively. Like if he got the ball before, first thought was always to take on his man, head down and dribble past as many players till he reached the goal. If you watch him now you will notice he doesn't do that anymore, nor does he hold onto the ball for long. Doesn't try to dribble past a player unless there is space behind them (this isn't necessarily a good thing, I don't want him to be too safe). Which is why now he doesn't lose the ball as much.

People might say I'm clutching at straws here but I really think there is tremendous potential in this guy. It would be such a shame if we could never unlock it.

The key to unlocking Pepe's potential was letting Auba go, and the door to that key was already closed. Fans don't want to admit it, but as long as we have Auba there's no reason for us to play Pepe too. We do not need two wingers to cut in and score goals, we need someone like Saka or Willian who can create on our other flank.
 

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
Lol we’ve had too many sick players who took a season to adapt though?
Not every signing comes in and hits the ground running that’s Man Utd logic.

Like who? Don't start naming guys from 20 years ago either it's a different game now.
 

Impact

Established Member
EiryEnTXkAIkyGe

Caption this.
 

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
The key to unlocking Pepe's potential was letting Auba go, and the door to that key was already closed. Fans don't want to admit it, but as long as we have Auba there's no reason for us to play Pepe too. We do not need two wingers to cut in and score goals, we need someone like Saka or Willian who can create on our other flank.

You are right about us not needing two wingers who both cut in. Ideally Auba should be tried central then we can have Pepe doing his role on the right flank. That way we could still play Willian/Saka on the left. Or Saka on the left and William behind Auba central. It is never going to happen though, don't think Arteta will ever play Auba as CF, no matter who we have available.
 

DanDare

Emoji Merchant and Believer-In-Chief
Trusted ⭐

Player:Saliba
Really wish we'd play him CF. He's got everything you need. He's a pure final third player and on those moments he's magic.

Disappointing overall so. Far but he has so much talent. People need to believe

#beliefsquad
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
Was very much out of the game until "his" goal. Was funny when Nketiah was angry when Arsenal scored. :lol:

He didn't do mistakes either even if was out of the game. Sometimes I just wonder if our left-sided tactics hinders his game too much. We attack from the left much more.

On the other hand it might help the left side that we have such a dribbler threat on the other side.

I don't have fears about him not making it here yet. His 2nd year just started.
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
That was his goal, wasn’t it? He drove to the goal line and his shot bounced of the post.

Yeah, "somewhat", wtf? It was nice speed and balance with keeping the defender behind him.

Wrong foot shot/cross wasn't the best of course, but I think it was good effort and that goal wouldn't have happened without him. It's not like Fuchs would have shot own goal just for fun.
 
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