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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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Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Rice
I thought Pepe played pretty well last night. One of his better performances of the season for sure.

I'm not going to go overboard though, it was one game up against a poor RB. Let's see if he can string 5-6 performances together in a row.

If Auba's out of Saturday I'm definitely more interested in seeing Pepe start on the left than I would have been before yesterday. So he's earnt a bit of credit there.

Hopefully this Southampton performance is a spring board for him and lifts his confidence.
 

Country: Iceland
My expectations of Pepe has now less to do with his prize but more how people have hyped him up.

This is a good start, but if you believe people on here. If the stage is set up correctly(apparently this has nothing to do with the manager as the manager can't influence if players play good or badly) so I don't really know. But the team is getting more confidence, we are scoring and creating chances so if Pepe really is that good I'm expecting months of constant good performances, I'm expecting some games he come up with some magic to open up closed games. I don't think that is unfair. I want to see that Pepe everyone is whispering about in corners!
 

bojed

AM Resident Joker #1
He was good last night. Couldn't care less if it was "just" against Soton.

But he still has a long way to go to justify the hype around him not to mention his ridiculous price tag too, which was not his fault. Whoever agreed £70m for him needs to be flogged. £20m at most so far.
 

Big Poppa

Established Member
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Country: USA

Player:Saliba
It struck me that there are two types fan judges in player threads after a game.
  • Game Judges
  • Performance Judges
The game judges focus on how the player's performance influenced the result. They are people oriented in nature. The performance judges focus on how the player's performance compares to their ideal player in the same position (it may be a prior Arsenal favourite). They are process oriented.

The game judges are optimists but experience mood swings owing to the team's form. The performance judges are pessimists who remain relatively consistent but can be somewhat miserable.

Game judges tend to accuse performance judges of being haters. Performance judges tend to accuse game judges of lacking of football knowledge.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
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Country: England
Having let that performance resonate for a bit, I gotta say I'm very impressed with his performance.

He stepped up. Auba was out, people were miffed about Gabigol not starting, he stepped up. The goal was a quality finish (there's a conversation to be had about him playing up top btw) but his work rate, winning headers, communication, it was all there.

If he put in those performances every week, or even close to those performances, the whole £72M thing wouldn't get brought up as often. Buzzing for him, but I don't want this to be another false dawn, he needs to replicate this 5/6 games on the bounce before we can be confident of his importance here.
Agree with you but I feel sorry for him and not even trying to be pessimistic but unless Arteta tries him uptop or changes system then I don't see it happening.

Saka is literally a 100M pound player atm, Auba is a proven WC player and that basically rules out the right and left wings for him. He could play up-front but not in this system and that kind of means that through no fault of his own he's kind of done here unless we get a Guardiola type rotation going.

I wouldn't mind that rotation, it's what every top club needs after all, but I think he does need a consistent run to put him and the fans at ease. It's crazy he hasn't had such a run in almost two years at the club.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
But the team is getting more confidence, we are scoring and creating chances so if Pepe really is that good I'm expecting months of constant good performances, I'm expecting some games he come up with some magic to open up closed games. I don't think that is unfair. I want to see that Pepe everyone is whispering about in corners!
As long as the team is playing well, he'll always be a player who contributes to our attack rather than makes it worse. I'm 100% confident of that.

The sad thing is that I don't think he'll ever get that run of games to prove that. Even now he has the 2nd most goals + assists in the squad, last season he was 2nd as well. Over a span of games, he'll prove that his productivity is worth him losing the ball, even though people exaggerate that.
 

Country: Iceland
As long as the team is playing well, he'll always be a player who contributes to our attack rather than makes it worse. I'm 100% confident of that.

The sad thing is that I don't think he'll ever get that run of games to prove that. Even now he has the 2nd most goals + assists in the squad, last season he was 2nd as well. Over a span of games, he'll prove that his productivity is worth him losing the ball, even though people exaggerate that.

My problem is not him losing the ball or dribbling like Bambi on the ice at times or anything in that regard. Although I might have made fun of it in the past...

My main problem with him is him not managing to put his stamp on the game for sustainable periods during the game, game after game after game. Consistency! Being involved and helping out in the build-up. That is where I want to see improvements!
 

novar

Well-Known Member
We'll just have to wait and see, only Newcastle would give the same kind of advantages Soton did (and it wouldn't happen with their starting defensive line), really a shame he didn't play in the 3-0

A similar performance vs a more organized team will be great news for us.
 

TakeChillPill

Established Member
I still feel he's an 80/20 player will be rubbish 80% of the time and 20% quality. what I liked was that he was less involved in the build up and more focused on running at defenders and distruping the back line.


The negative was definitely that goal we conceded, he just switched off it was so amateur! He needs to understand at this level you can never switch off, need to bring your A game in all aspects.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
My main problem with him is him not managing to put his stamp on the game for sustainable periods during the game, game after game after game. Consistency! Being involved and helping out in the build-up. That is where I want to see improvements!
None of our players is being able to do that throughout any of the games, because the times when we were dominating other teams are long gone.
And for the rest, he never plays game after game so I can't understand what you're expecting there. Expecting consistency from a player who starts every fifth game... Feels a bit dumb if I'm honest

Loads of posts here are complete rubbish, people targeting him because of the price like it's his fault. We have a very good player on our books, and I think he was productive as someone could be considering his status within the squad.

The trouble is, no matter how good he is, once Auba is back he will end up on the bench. That's not a situation that would inspire someone to step up, he understands that very well. He can score on Saturday and will still find himself out of the team next week
 

freeglennhelder2

Established Member

Country: England

Player:Elneny
I thought Pepe played pretty well last night. One of his better performances of the season for sure.

I'm not going to go overboard though, it was one game up against a poor RB. Let's see if he can string 5-6 performances together in a row.

Agree with this, but lest be honest there isnt a very high bar for his performances.

I would like those who think the manager is responsible for his poor form to explain how that extends to Pepe perpetually tripping over his own feet :lol:

Onwards and upwards anyway...c'mon Pepe we are all rooting for you! Lets kick on my man, you can do it.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
Saka is literally a 100M pound player atm, Auba is a proven WC player and that basically rules out the right and left wings for him.
As long as our manager and the fans feel like that, we're gonna be a mid table team. Auba is not a WC player, not even close, he is a WC goalscorer and one of the few players in the world who can score 20+ goals in the PL. I'm not saying Pepe should take his place, but we need to move him away from LW and play someone with a more suitable skillset there. I just feel we play so much better in the attack without him stinking our attack from the LW
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
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Country: England
As long as our manager and the fans feel like that, we're gonna be a mid table team. Auba is not a WC player, not even close, he is a WC goalscorer and one of the few players in the world who can score 20+ goals in the PL. I'm not saying Pepe should take his place, but we need to move him away from LW and play someone with a more suitable skillset there. I just feel we play so much better in the attack without him stinking our attack from the LW
Yeah you're right, WC goalscorer but his general play has always been a bit leave it..

the Saka-ESR-Pepe line of attacking mids was really nice to see. Felt like it was the first time in ages we could attack down either wing and be hopeful of something happening. We need to find a way to get Auba in front of that line. I've had a taste of it and don't wanna go back now.:lol:
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
Yeah you're right, WC goalscorer but his general play has always been a bit leave it..

the Saka-ESR-Pepe line of attacking mids was really nice to see. Felt like it was the first time in ages we could attack down either wing and be hopeful of something happening. We need to find a way to get Auba in front of that line. I've had a taste of it and don't wanna go back now.:lol:
We need him as a CF, Laca will never be able to contribute 20+ goals a season even though he can be a very good player. To get Auba there, we need to add more technical quality to the team and create chances, that guy will score for fun. The easiest improvements are currently RB and CM where I feel we lack technical quality other top teams will have. Once that's sorted, I'm sure Pepe/Saka would add 10-15 goals each and Auba 20+, but without enough creativity, we will always need someone like Laca to contribute with that and Auba will play as a winger
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
Yeah you're right, WC goalscorer but his general play has always been a bit leave it..

the Saka-ESR-Pepe line of attacking mids was really nice to see. Felt like it was the first time in ages we could attack down either wing and be hopeful of something happening. We need to find a way to get Auba in front of that line. I've had a taste of it and don't wanna go back now.:lol:
I liked that with Pepe on the left, that side still remained the dominant side of attack. That's credit to Cedric too.

It's not a big deal, but the ball not really going down the right side as much was often used to bash Pepe, now we can see there is a slight bias in our attacking approach and fan's opinions.

I really hope Pepe dispels a lot of negative myths amongst the fanbase before he goes. I think lacking in the build up is a valid critique however, something Saka undoubtedly has over him.
 

Geofranco

Would let Saka date his daughter

Player:Saka
None of our players is being able to do that throughout any of the games, because the times when we were dominating other teams are long gone.
And for the rest, he never plays game after game so I can't understand what you're expecting there. Expecting consistency from a player who starts every fifth game... Feels a bit dumb if I'm honest

Loads of posts here are complete rubbish, people targeting him because of the price like it's his fault. We have a very good player on our books, and I think he was productive as someone could be considering his status within the squad.

The trouble is, no matter how good he is, once Auba is back he will end up on the bench. That's not a situation that would inspire someone to step up, he understands that very well. He can score on Saturday and will still find himself out of the team next week

If Pepe has a stormer against United, there is no way he will end up on the bench. He has to be dominant. He prob has the most raw talent on the team, but not really the mentality of a top player. He should even be looking at Saka and thinking he can get back that RW position if need be. That's the way a top player will think. You can't be comfortable with a 19 year old taking your position and doing better than you.
 
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