That is grim reading but change it to starts...and it's still grim reading tbh.
The point I'm getting at is that there aren't many guys around who can slot into a team and get their numbers regardless. I challenge anyone to find a successful attacking signing who hasn't had the environment to thrive but still did anyway.
Salah was scouted specifically for his attributes, Bruno was given the keys to United and we all know that Chelsea had no problem scoring goals
before they signed Werner, Ziyech and Havertz.
Pepe hasn't come into a free-flowing attack and made us worse, he hasn't caused a decrease in any of our attacking stats and actually ranks highly in the squad for most of our advanced attacking stats. That suggests that if we get our attack working those advanced stats should translate into the bread and butter goals + assists we expect
As a somewhat starter he ended up with around 20 g/a in our worst attacking season in years and his advanced stats back up that it wasn't a fluke. That's why people have faith in him and also this thread will be the next great A-M debate until our attack is sorted and people can definitively decide on whether he's a poor player or not.
As for the signing, it's very close to being a flop. We should have never invested so much in a player that functions in a flowing attack when what we need are players to create that flowing attack. Auba with an army of creative players around him would probably have been enough. Pepe is the guy you add to an Auba to go to the next level imo.
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