Have you seen their CL record with this line-up? They've lost 3 games, and have a better record than Barca, Juve, BL... He's unlikely to change the CL line-up until things go much worse or there are injuries. Also PSV is well out in front in Ered at this point. Pepi much more likely to get mins there if Til needs a rest.
doesn't change that what you stated is factual and Juve would almost certainly get smashed if we played PSV like last years knockout as things stand...
Surprised Driouch started. Peresic not quite match-fit must have been the call. Anyway, opportunity for late game heroics atm. Will Pepi get in and save the day?
I was speaking generally, in 3 seasons he has: 3 starts 16 substitution appearances 1 unused substitution 4 out of squad due to injury 5 goals in 426 minutes
Pepi vs Atletico Madrid Came in down 3-1 at the 74', end to end action for a lot of the 2nd half. - 1st interaction was beautiful crossed ball waist high, Pepi pretty much free of his man but shanks from the 6 yard box. Had to stretch for it but that is literally his go-to expected play. Gotta score that. - 2nd, ball somehow sneaks through to him on the break, heavy touch goes to keeper. Caught him a bit by surprised but a tighter touch gets him a shot on goal. - 3rd, designed corner, Pepi peels off to go back post and the ball finds it way to him. Great effort and anticipation. Just flat out beat his man to the spot. Pokes it in from a yard out. Nicely done. - 4th, in transition ball get to him in the center circle and he hits terrible pass to the other team. not good. - 5th, real nice layoff to Dest running into the box. Tight spaces and nice weighted pass by Pepi. Too much traffic for Dest to get the shot. - 6th, some nice volley give and go's around the top of the box, Pepi takes it first time out of the air in super crowded space but sorta shanks wide. Good to get the shot off, nice instincts. Overall, good impact sub performance (thank god he scored or it would have been real bad). Was active in the true 9/striker role, tip toeing in between the CBs. Worked hard off the ball. Just seems to be a little lack of quality from him that holds him back. Dude can score, but just something keeping him from the next level.
This makes zero sense. “Sure, he scores every time he plays but I don’t know.” Who talks like this about a striker? The only things holding him back so far are two inopportunely timed injuries and 6 months playing for a team that was literally incapable of moving the ball from midfielders to forwards.
He was offsides on the ball he hit over the bar so it would not have counted. But dude is scoring/assisting roughly every 70 minutes played.... so yeah, aside from his recent injury woes I would say he is doing just about everything you want from a striker.
We can say that he scores but sometimes he lacks a few other qualities.. no? Nuance exists. And sorry, but when we blame our Yanks teammates for bad things.. then he shouldnt get much credit for when they do feed him the ball? Am I doing that right? Pepi scored a nice goal and had some good moments today. He also did a few bad things.
I think a healthy, fit Pepi is going to be a very effective Pepi. Whether he's top team/top league 1st striker effective, I'm not quite smart enough to ken. But as long as his body holds up, the guy has a poachers instinct and enough technique and vision to put a lot of balls in the net. I don't think Bosz (or Til) sees Til as a permanent CF. He's spent that majority of his career in the central midfield AM/CM and I doubt he plans to celebrate his 28th birthday by starting a second career as a 9. To Bosz' credit Guus' been a great stand-in as the "true" CFs have gone down like paper dolls, but if Pepi keeps show up and scoring he'll become the default in league, if not Europe (this season).
You said if he hadn’t scored his performance would have been really bad. You’re also saying he lacks something that keeps him from getting to the next level. Is this really nuance?
When all is said and done, I won't be surprised if Pepi has a bigger career than Balo. I love them both but damn, Pepi just has a knack for finishing and a hell of a lot of desire..
After you watched his entire performance today what was your opinion? If you didnt watch then I'm not sure how to reply. I already gave a detailed review and analysis. I was critical where there was fault and I was complimentary when he was good. My summary was overall positive. Apologies if I think he still has some improvement to his game.
Didn't see today's game, but I agree with wixson that Pepi has to raise the other parts of his game. His scoring will dry up at times and if he's not contributing in other ways -- hold up, link up, first line of defense, etc -- he's gonna drop down the depth chart and then the leagues. Obviously his play here *will* warrant a move to a bigger league/club, and that's where he'll really be tested. He's in a great run of scoring form but he's still missing some pieces to round out his game and become a The Guy.
I think the next step for Pepi is carrying the team for a few months from the tip of the spear. He did it in spades for Groningen, and he's contributed important goals in limited minutes for PSV, but one of the worst things about him missing the start of the season is he didn't get that full run out as "the man" that he could have. That said, I don't think there's anything materially different between carrying the offensive duties for 9 months vs 5 months, so hopefully he stays healthy, PSV require continued fiddling in the midfield and Pepi gets 8 or 10 90 mins games in a row to really see how he performs round the clock with the service that Sailibari, Peresic, Til, Veerman (and Dest!) and the rest can provide. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Why should we care if he’s The Guy? Inzaghi was never The Guy, was never even close to good enough. He’s also one of the 10 best goal scorers to ever live.
Inzaghi was a regular starter until his late 20s. Pepi is 22 and I’d enjoy watching him play more often.
inzaghi was also an outlier, came up thru serie b, and was Italian. If Pepi becomes a trap-beating poaching machine and it lands him a top-team serie a transfer, awesome. But for most mere mortal strikers who play in the top 2nd tier, they have to earn big transfers the old fashioned way - being the man leading the line.