Ricardo Pepi at PSV Eindhoven

Doesnot it ring a bell in your mind that PB frees up time to go and watch this game, that it's more than just dumping a player in a match in our second tier?

 

Again, this hurts the argument. The fitness argument for Arsenal is the less bad one. Not thinking, from 2nd division performance, you can evaluate one of the leading scorers in the top division last season, who's positively contributed to your team this season in a smaller role. Then he's looking for false-positives or false-negatives. It's a no-win to lose-lose for Pepi.

 

I’ve said this before, but the way they’re using de Jong and Pepi makes no sense to me. Playing any striker, especially an older one like de Jong essentially guarantees that he either gets injured or runs out of gas later in the year.

if the goal is to win the league, I don’t think it’s a good strategy. And if the goal is to develop Pepi in the medium term, they’re not going about that well either.

it probably won’t matter given how dominant they’ve been, but it makes no sense to rotate the two as little as they have.

 

I mentioned the role LdJ played in the Feyenoord match. What if PB talked with Pepi about that and wanted to see how he fares with such a task and chose to see how Pepi copes with that task? Attacking wise from our pov Pepi may have been shit in this NAC match, but what if that wasnot at all what was instructed to Pepi, to show he's an excellent striker? What if it was to show how he copes with a match long concentration on a certain task?
The match had a certain purpose we don't know, but has importance shown by PB presence.
Dismissing it as whatever, is just making noise without knowing the real story.

 

PSV isn’t some amateur shitshow. And they have a heavy American presence starting with Earnie.

I see next to no chance club and player weren’t on board with this.

PSV isn’t gonna just embarrass Pepi for no good reason after he put them thru to knockouts.

 

Again you're making up things. You, nor any of us, know what PB talked about with Pepi regarding this match. You're assuming things, based on last seasons performances in a team not being PSV, which most likely are miles apart from what the real objectives with this match were.
We don't know what the objectives were and it just could be the objectives set were met and successful.

 

It's just perception they embarrass him, because we don't know what the objectives are.
Again I repeat PB was in the stands to watch Pepi, so he clearly had a plan with it.
How difficult is it to get that by certain posters?

 

They're running a club that atm is on track with the 1988 triple that Guus Hiddink managed (not thinking PSV can repeat it). Everything PB does is to maximize from the selection the performance they can deliver. Each decision he makes is geared to that, including Pepi playing against NAC.

 

Did we miss Pepi pointing at his imaginary wrist watch when he scored the CL goal? Is he getting punished for something? Probably just keeping his match fitness. I'd like him to get more minutes, but he's still in a good place IMO.

 

results suggest otherwise at the moment

 

Building depth is also important, but yeah, hard to argue with results to date.

 

Earnie Stewart’s sock account? It’s always fun to watch folks who believe the laws of physics apply to everyone except usmnt players. This is not a surprising situation and folks acting like it is just aren’t living in the real world. If Pepi were the team vet and captain in the running for a scoring title as well as league silver, we’d lose our mind if the coach sat him for some young punk.

 

The key phrased is emboldened. We are less than halfway through the season.

as I said, they’ve built such a big cushion that they can probably still win the league with a de Jong injury or drop in form. However, that doesn’t make running him into the ground any less stupid, especially when his backup has been so productive, and has so much potential for the future.

 

What's the physics part here? If you're referring to fitness or sharpness, well playing 20-25 minutes in the game yesterday, at a higher level, alongside LDJ or subbing in for him, would have helped in those departments. That would be w/ an aim toward continuing to increase in league, then starting v. Arsenal, if that's their goal. But that's a meaningless game anyway. So if the almost always fit Ricardo Pepi isn't as fit, leading to underwhelming, little harm's done. For meaningful games, you're arguing he should never start because LDJ exists.

As for me, I'm not asking the starter to effectively "sit" for the "young punk", rather be rested and rotated, while gradually increasing minutes of performing bench players, which is standard practice. Expecting the opposite is where the double-standard actually lies. To wit, if you're bringing up bias to explain how that happens, it's fair to mention your open affinity for the Eredivisie.

 

PSV/Dutch fans:

"Ricardo Pepi was the celebrated man in Seville with his winning goal The contrast with Seville and the Herdgang was very big tonight. Pepi did not deserve to go down so hard with Jong PSV. Pepi deserved better."

"Ricardo Pepi should not have played at all tonight. Young PSV should simply register a permanent selection and otherwise start its own bacon and beans competition"

"Imagine you shoot your team into the CL round of 16 and a few days later you have to play in the second team"

Imagine Du schießt dein Team ins CL Achtelfinale und paar Tage später musst Du in der zweiten Mannschaft ran

Als 12 Millionen Transfer...

— Kirchi 🦊 (@kirchi_privat) December 4, 2023

but dose biased USMNT fans...

 

Comment of Bosz after the Feyenoord match:
When composing his starting line-up, the coach also took into account the capacity of his squad. 'We play a lot of games in a short period of time. With many players you also notice the fatigue towards the winter break. And we have dudes on the bench who are always great substitutes.'
https://www.vi.nl/nieuws/deze-rol-speelde-schouten-in-het-masterplan-van-bosz

 

Uhm, a German tweet?
Any one from those twitters telling why Bosz was watching the game? I still have to wait for the explanation of what he was doing there. A lot of noise without any substance.
This shit comment suggests it some kind of punishment
"Ricardo Pepi was the celebrated man in Seville with his winning goal The contrast with Seville and the Herdgang was very big tonight. Pepi did not deserve to go down so hard with Jong PSV. Pepi deserved better."

 

Huh? I’ve never hid my Dutch-philia, tho I hate PSV as much as any club, so it’s a double edged lightbulb. The thing all the rotation-arguing folks studiously ignore is LdJ is a club fixture legitimately in the hunt for a scoring title. Until folks acknowledge that aspect of the equation this is a dishonest conversation. If LdJ were, I dunno, Tim Ream, or patty van Aanholt - if dest hadn’t already taken his spot- maybe this convo has more weight, but being in the running for the Dutch scoring title when you a domestic star who has never hit the heights of some Dutch legends in the top leagues, is a career opportunity. No one gives up minutes easily in that situation, esp for a kid who has thousands of minutes in his future. That’s the physics I’m talking about. Luuk is the sun here. Pepi, even Bosz to an extent, revolve around him for now. I don’t even agree with it, but it's silly to ignore the obvious laws of nature at play here.

 

To put this in context, LdJ has come in second in the Ered scoring competition close to 100 times - or at least 4 or 5. He and Tadic co-won it in 18-19, but Ajax beat PSV for the title. LdJ is 3rd. Barring something happening to Santiago (like a huge-money winter transfer... or sprained ankle... - or, most desired, a Feyenie 2024 collapse) LdJ isn't winning the scoring title. But I'm sure you can't tell *him* that at this point. So put yourself in the PSV clubhouse. PSV is winning. LdJ is 3rd in the ered G column. Wearing the Captain's armband. He came in 5th last year with 14 G in only 24 games - the only guy with double digit goals with less than 30 apps... except for a kid named Pepi (12 in 29), Mike Kramer (12 in 27), and Van Palvidis (12 in 25). LdJ was tied for 2nd with Gapko in G/90. Even with more games, LdJ was always going to come in 2nd, but showing as well as he did with a shortened season, you got to know he's walking believe if he just stays healthy, he can win the Ered and the scoring title. Won't happen, but no one in the PSV is going to tell him that in Dec.

He's not giving up PT out of the goodness of his heart so Pepi can garner some lime-light. That's not how it works at this level. I wish it did, but Luuk calls the shots on his PT as long as PSV is winning. Even a boss coach has no reason to fight him about it right now. If the option is pissed Pepi or pissed LdJ, sorry Ricardo... Bosz (and Earnie) are undoubtedly doing their best to keep Luuk happy, and Pepi not outright revolting, but Pepi will lose this battle as long as PSV, and de Jong, are running away with the league.

 

Pepi knows this is the long game.

 

So much for "it's a team sport."

 

lol. Really? Ok. Wanna buy a rainbow?

and to be clear, I don’t advocate this, just explaining what I believe the dynamic is.

 

Yeah, really (if what you're suggesting is really happening) - if it's all about LDJ being the scoring leader (especially at this point in the season) that's pretty selfish. Bosz is weak if he let's LDJ make his decisions for him.

And I'm not even worried about Pepi's playing time right now.

 

I doubt anyone, least of all LdJ, is walking around saying overtly "I want to play all the minutes I can so I can stay in the scoring title race." He doesn't need to. He's 3rd for scoring and 5th or so for assists and they are winning, and he's a long-time PSV player, loved by fans, and likely the team, and he's the captain. On the other side of the scale, there are basically 2 data points in Pepi's favor: LdJ is old and Sevilla. But until the "old" part catches up to him, or the goals/wins stop coming, there's not a lot of reason to rest the old man.

Even without being in the race for top scorer, it's pretty unusual to rest guys like LdJ while the team is winning, unless he wants to sit. From Pukki to Giroud (I mean, that guys like a 100 and he's played nearly every minute of Milan's CL campaign...) it is rare for teams to sit vet strikers if they're scoring at a reasonable pace and staying healthy. If it were not Pepi behind LdJ, but some Serb or Icelandic striker, no one on these boards would spend a half second thinking about it. That's just how the game works.