Nicolas Pépé’s Shot at Redemption in Villarreal
Nicolas Pépé has not reached the expectations that were set for him after he left Lille to join Arsenal for €80 million. Villareal are keen on returning to European competitions after a horrendous first half of the season which was reverted in the second half finishing 8th. Can Pépé recover his form and be the final piece needed for Marcelino to take Villarreal to Europe? In this article, we will be investigating Nicolas Pépé and what he can offer Villarreal.
Name: Nicolas Pépé
Position: Right Winger/Center Forward
Country: Ivory Coast
Age: 29
Height: 183cm
Preferred Foot: Left
Last Club: Trabzonspor
Pépé began his career in Angers SCO and was loaned out to Orléans in his first season in the first team. Just one season later, he was signed by Lille for €10 million and with an outstanding campaign which saw Lille win the league in 2019, he earned his move to the Premier League when Arsenal payed €80 million for his signature. He stayed 3 seasons in the London club before being loaned out to Nice and leaving on a free transfer a year later to join Trabzonspor. Just one season after signing for the Turkish club he was released and is now on his way to Spain.
In this image, we can find that Pépe has the most goals scored by far which shows his exceptional capacity to put the ball in the back of the net as his xG is lower than his goals scored. Nonetheless, these values usually lower with time and he should score fewer goals in the future.
Once again, Pépé has the most assists among Villarreal’s players, nonetheless, he has the second most expected assists which tells us that he should have had fewer assists. However, looking at these two metrics, we can say that Pépé is a decisive player that can have high outputs in goals and assists that is valuable to any squad.
Here we can see that Pépé’s crossing ability is quite poor with more than 1 cross per 90 and just above a 20% success rate. This clearly shows that he is not a player who tends to cross the ball as it is not one of his strengths so he tries to avoid it. This may also tell us that he likes to cut inside leaving room for the full-back to attack the space vacated by the opposition.
In this image, we can observe that Pépé is a decent dribbler of the ball, having the best success rate though it is true that he has the least dribbles performed per 90. Looking at this metric and the previous one, we can say that Pépé is not a player that stays on the wing to perform 1vs1s but rather he likes to come inside and generate from there.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Nicolas Pépé is a player who can add depth to Villarreal’s squad, however, he may not be a necessary signing as he doesn’t really improve on Bertrand Traoré or on Ilias Akhomach which already covers the two profiles on the wing. In addition, he does not stand out in any aspects except for the goals and assists output but these are inflated as his xG and xA suggest he should have less.
Whilst he has plied his trade in France, England and Turkey, he has no experience in Spain’s top-flight and the last time he played in a big league he ended up disappointing, having not reached his level at Lille from 5 years ago. In addition, the data of Pépé comes from his time in Turkey meaning that it will be more difficult to achieve these results in a more competitive league. Overall, there are few reasons to say that Pépé will be an exceptional player for Villarreal unless he recovers his form.
By: Juan Fernandez Valencia / @ScoutLaLiga
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Stuart MacFarlane – Arsenal FC