They see him in training. always funny how the totally unbiased yanks abroad crowd knows best how to run a club and develop players for profit which just so happens to coincide with the emotional knee jerk reaction of the moment in favor of a particular American player they view as under siege.
Considering the guy still getting molded is 21 and the guy running the front line is 33, and still in the running for winning the scoring trophy, I understand why he is not getting a bunch of minutes. But he has assessed himself very well this season. If he has 12 more years of growth in his position like the present forward has, it is all worth it. Patience.
What about the fact this race could be officially over with around 3 games left, at which point the club would benefit from giving Pepi a few game audition to see how ready he is to take the reins next season? Then, as a high-level selling club, they could transfer De Jong for whatever they could get for him coming off a productive season (I know he's old, but he's been big club depth before), and set Pepi up to make them 50m in the near future, while acquiring the next in line. This is what sustains them as a club in a non-premium league who can still be competitive with the top teams in inter-league play. How does the goal of a scoring title dovetail with their near future goals to compete and make $? Sadly, this controversy came around the worst time, because they may have thought it worked from a cost-benefit standpoint to give Pepi the starts nearly the rest of the way. The issue about starting in the past aside, they could or should have played him around double the minutes they have coming off the bench this season, based on production, and the # of minutes the incumbent logged. That's a reasonable gripe, though it shouldn't have been public as a potential distraction. I'm pretty confident they'll make amends. It makes too much cents not too.
https://www.vi.nl/pro/overig/ricardo-el-tren-pepi-loopt-vertraging-op-als-spits-wil-je-exploderen In this article they compare/liken Pepi with his favourite game character Naruto Uzumaki.
My only point here is almost no team sits their captain/top scorer when he's in the running for the scoring title unless he's not fit, the physios say he needs to, or he asks to. It has nothing to do with Pepi, it's just the way the world works. If LdJ tells Bosz/PSV management "I feel great and I really want to win the scoring title" it's worse for Pepi that they are running away with the title. There's just no good argument to sitting LdJ. I'm not saying it's good, or fair, or even smart - just that, in my experience, that's the way the world works. And if I were PSV/Bosz I would not force LdJ to sit unless there was a very compelling fitness or other issue. I don't like it either, but imho that's how it's going to go. Hopefully LdJ scores 10 goals next game and/or gets the flu.
I wouldn't call it sitting so much as periodic resting, and sub off's. Pepi not only didn't get much in the way of starts (lol, 1, I believe) but even the sub minutes were on the low side, when he subbed on, it was often very late. Wouldn't you want to manage LDJ's minutes anyway due to age? Give him 30 minutes rest in a game beyond doubt instead of 10 or 15? Give him 5-8 starts off, instead of 1 or whatever it was? That's my issue, it's not that I want something forced, its that I want logic. Dude is old, Pepi is the guy they either will hand the reigns too, or decide isnt up to it, and by not managing old dude's minutes during this epic season, they risked his health, and the forward trajectory of Pepi to boot, and it cost next to nothing to manage the minutes more smartly. It's bizarre, at least to me, that LDJ didn't give 5x as many games worth of rest as he got, and Pepi didn't get several hundred more sub mins than he got. It's ridiculous. It's not that I'm arguing, sit the stud right now, it's that we're saying, spread the minutes more sanely? And they did not, and at great risk to the club regardless. They may not have paid a price for it this year, but running those risk is just stupid. eventually you get found out, like I did, just taking a 2 mile drive in the snow back in january in conditions I didn't bat an eye at after 20 years of driving in blizzards in the sierra nevada, and in the process, I crashed. Eventually, being this silly with minutes, is gonna cost you, they're just lucky it didn't, not smart.
Saibari en Pepi zijn er morgen tegen Vitesse nog niet bij, bij PSV. Lozano traint wel weer mee en kan bij de selectie zitten. De blessure van Babadi wordt vandaag onderzocht. Hij is er tegen Vitesse niet bij.— Rik Elfrink (@RikElfrink) April 12, 2024 Reportedly not expected to be with the squad tomorrow. Unclear from the translation of the tweet if this is due to injury.
Pepi is injured: "Saturday comes too early for Saibari and Pepi due to injuries" https://www.nu.nl/voetbal/6308829/p...erugkeer-lozano-en-leeft-mee-met-vitesse.html From another article: For example, Ismael Saibari and Ricardo Pepi still train individually due to a previous injury they suffered.
Thanks! I kinda assumed it was injury related because of the rest of the tweet, I just couldn't find other English sources to back that up
I have not seen any specifics on the injury (tho tbf I haven't looked very hard.) from the quotes that he's training individually and this weekend "comes too soon" it sounds like he's expected back fairly soon.
LdJ gets 2 goals + 1 A in today's 6-0 rout of Vitesse. Luuk went 90 and is now 1 goal behind for the Ered scoring title and well in front as the Ered assist and G+A leader.
But the lack of time seems to be hurting his performance. He was scoring quite a bunch off the bench but not recently.
Pepi came on at 78 mins for Bakayoko in today's route of the not-so-pride-of-the-north 'veen. (pour one out for my in-laws.) LdJ stayed on, and grabbed an assist to Patrick van Aancient in what could just have easily been just two guys on an over-30 team... (LdJ also got a goal and the assist to Tillman) (I'm now considering pitching, instead of U23 games, an over-30 CL where each league fields it's best over-30 team, because there aren't enough soccer games as it is.) I did not watch the 8-0 drubbing, but I'm sure there is 80 minutes of highlights on line someplace.
With yesterday’s sub appearance, Pepi broke the magical 400 minute barrier for league play with PSV. You might think it wouldn't be difficult to get minutes on a club with a +86 goal differential over the season but clearly not the case. I guess you can chalk this season up to "apprenticeship".
Luuk has already scored five more goals in this season in the Eredivisie than he did in five seasons in Spain, Germany and England.
It is just a shame Pepi is not seen as a more effective wide attacker or that Bosz doesn't play a 4-4-2 more often. I know we don't want it to be true, but LdJ wants to win all the scoring/player of the year accolades he can muster and Bosz/PSV are happy to let him... and who can blame him/them?