🚨Ricardo Pepi’s goals per 90 numbers were pretty decent this year😳🔥🤣 pic.twitter.com/DYPPoHQGJX— USMNT News (@USMNTNews2) May 21, 2025
Worth noting that de Jong's number declined precipitously. I mean, he's still fine. he went from an all-time epic season of 44 goal contributions in 34 league games last season to 22 such contributions this season. Half as much. I get it. It would have been hard for Luuk to match that 23/24 season. Still, this seems now like an obvious passing of the torch to Pepi coming next season. One trending up and the other trending down. Luuk is out of contract, but reports are that they're talking about a 1-year contract extension with him.
Good article. Pepi really added so much to our attack on Sunday. And he had such good chemistry with Puligol.
There's often a lot of debate about what level of play is ideal for a developing soccer player, but I think that at least one aspect of Pepi playing on a PSV side - for a few seasons under the shadow of de Jong - that gets a lot of relatively easy Ered games coupled with a good dozen+ top Ered and CL matches is he's been able to really intentionally work on his "playmaking 9" skills/abilities. Of course, he could also have developed this aspect of his game elsewhere, but it's a pretty entrenched aspect of this PSV side and a guy with Pepi's skill set could easily have been stuck in a very narrow "traditional tip of the spear" 9 role at other clubs. Watching him the last few years he seems to play smarter and smarter every time he hits the field - and his goal contributions have been extremely consistent for such a young player. Really fun to watch his development, despite the time on the bench (or the physio table.)
The big non-Dutch clubs/clubs in the top leagues have coaches without the need or the capabilities or the intention to put in skills that make a player better. They're on the watch of being pulled the rug from under them, if they don't get results...so good luck with investing efforts and time to make a player complete. Dutch clubs can't afford the complete product, especially those not called Feyenoord, PSV or Ajax. So Dutch (Belgian ones too, I guess) coaches by default are tuned in to get an unfinished product and make it better.
Yeah, lost in the dogmatic USMNT fan development philosophy that high levels of competition are the only thing that drives improvement is that I think it is very beneficial for players to actually play at levels where they can be one of the better players but are still challenged. It's incredibly hard to work on certain aspects of your game if you are just barely treading water. Even if you could do more, coaches will often define your role incredibly narrowly, pushing you to work only on the aspects of the game they need right then; not what makes you a better player. When I compare guys like say, Richy Ledezma's development path and Diego Luna, there's little doubt in my mind that Luna is more creative player now because he was able to be a primary creator and offensive focal point at each stop. Whereas Ledezma somewhat overshot his skill level and got moved. Or compare Joe Scally and Alex Freeman. Scally, as a youth player, was a much strong offensive player than defender. That's all gone now, and I think no small part of it was going to a team that basically needed him to focus on defense to survive. Whereas Freeman was given a team that basically gave him free reign on offense once he got there to wreak havoc. Competition is important, but racing to the highest level competition isn't necessarily the best path. You can't learn the skills you need to be an important player for your team if you aren't one of the best players on your team at some point.
For all the criticism LD gets for staying home - from a National team POV it was pretty ideal - less grueling than playing all the domestic, cup and international games in Europe and he got to play in a position best for his National team which likely wouldn't have happend at a top team in Europe. OTOH - it worked out fine for Dempsey. Don't think there is a set formula for success.
I think it also depends a lot on the player's personality and temperament. Some guys can thrive on the bench playing for a club that is a little above their current level and some guys would crater in that scenario. Each player needs to determine that for themselves. Then throw in family, culture, etc and it's not quite as cut and dry. If you can't speak the language and the culture is completely different a player might flounder no matter how good the coaching and team situation are. Then throw in where you wife or girlfriend wants to live.
yep. In teaching this is called scaffolding. You give someone a chance to solidify their skill set and learn new skills that are a little beyond their current reach. As they progress, you progress the challenging. The key to learning is a) practicing/solidifying a skill b) seeing what works and what doesn't work as the task is made more difficult. If you raise the bar too much, the learner will almost never have success, they won't learn how to do it right, and they'll lose the skill they started with. And, with regard to physical stuff, they might once in a while have success doing something the wrong way, or something no one can do consistently, and that reinforces bad habits. I'm a huge opponent of throwing someone in way over their head and thinking "they'll have to learn."
Pepi will get one if we make a run. Not sure why he took so much grief on the game thread. But he looks good to me.
Balogun was just on another level. Pepi looked pedestrian by comparison. But I think he’s got a better game in him before this tournament is over.
Sure and everyone was totally on in this one and I hope it continues but players have off games too. Just having someone as good as Pepi on the bench in case of injury and for subbing is amazing. We've never had three center forwards this good at the same time before this.
The presence of Balogun and Tillman and Wes in the center of the pitch was a PROBLEM for the opponent. I am still shaking my head at the combined effect of those three. When Tillman went out wide things changed. Controlling the center is fun.
If you wanted to be generous you could say Pepi worked hard and sacrificed himself for the team against Australia. But he showed absolutely ZERO offensive spark. For 20-minute stretches at a time I completely forgot he was even on the field at all. Could he get a start in the center forward spot against Turkey if Balogun is rested? Or would Poch look at totally different option? I guess it will also depend on the result of Paraguay v Turkey later.