AbouCuéllar
Author of A-M essays 📚
Interesting, would be interested to see what that looks like for this season. Likely much worse as his counting # statistics aren't very good (0.3 key passes and 75.8% PS% compared to 1.3 and 81.4% last season-- it's true he had a good run of form under Arteta later in the season last, but tbh, still had never seen that composure and short link up in the final third that I saw yesterday; Saka is at 1.2 KP and 80.7 PS% btw--both of their numbers are certainly hurt by the fact that about 18 of the 26 games played in EPL were under a totally sterile and unthreatening offensive set-up). It's not surprising, considering team effects, that Pepe's were far better last season, when half was played under incredibly leaky and dominated defensively but still better than Arteta offensively Em*ry and Ljungberg, and then later a counter-attacking system in the second half that rather suits Pepe's style, much less so than a possession style that has to face lower blocks and unlock defenses in short spaces, which is where we're seeing the biggest evolution in Pepe's play).