Unai Emery says summer signing Nicolas Pepe is still adapting to life at Arsenal and that the player is undergoing video sessions with the club’s coaches to get a better understanding of what is needed of him.
In six appearances this season, the Ivory Coast international has shown flashes of his ability off the right side of the attack – including assists against Sp*rs and Frankfurt – but without a goal to his name, it’s obvious there’s more to come in and around the box.
“He needs to adapt,” said Emery ahead of Sunday’s game with Aston Villa.
“He is playing well but progressively we know there is going to be more from him to help us and I want him to take the last step quickly in adapting for us.
“We are working with him – after training we are watching individual videos with him.
“He is playing well but also we need in our organisation to be strong with every player to improve a lot.”
Pepe scored 23 goals and made 12 assists for Lille as he helped them to a second-place finish in Ligue 1.
We need you to adapt and improve A LOT Emery!
For real! We gave Emery over a season already and he still hasn’t adapted. How about we give Pepe a season too? He’s young and it’s notoriously difficult for young strikers from Ligue 1 to adapt to the PL. But I have confidence he will, and will be very good for us in the long run 🙂
To be still playing so many players out of position after 15 months in the job is just plain embarrassing.
Watford were just waiting for us to play out from the back badly and predictably we obliged. The supporters didn’t want it to happen and you can see the players didn’t want to do it, but they were clearly following the kamikaze instructions of the only man in the stadium that didn’t know what was obviously going to happen. I want him to do well, but if, after this long he’s still doing stuff like that…..
City plays from the back and they stuffed Watford with 8 goals yesterday.
Yeah, I don’t think it has much to do with playing out. It’s leaving a big gap between the centre-halfs and the midfield, it’s using a slow player who can pass well (Xhaka) as the screening midfielder instead of a ball-winner or a double pivot.
Pepe needs to compose himself a bit and try to do the basics right. The goal will come but he mustn’t let it affect him adversely and let it get on his nerves. That’s when you stop concentrating and forget the job at hand
Oooo Yaya Sanogo!!
first class…………………………dick
I thought dick-law left Arsenal!
Make fun all you want, but yaya is a big part of why we have an extra FA cup in the trophy room
6-8 goals and 8-10 assists would be a decent return this season, then next season look to improve on those numbers, and become more dominant.
I think he’s looked bright, he’s got quick feet, good movement off the ball, defenders are cautious of him, and he has something different to any other players within our squad.
I hope Emery is given time, this team will look very different once Pepe+Ceballos have settled in, and we have Bellerin, Tierney and Holding back up to speed.
And no doubt Pepe is expecting more from you Mr Emery.
MC 8-0 Watford shows the gap we need to close, and it’s huge.
Would love to know what’s going through the heads ouf our players when they watch City play Watford off the park with ease. I’m not excusing them completely, but I’m convinced most of our problems are system-based rather than lack of individual quality.
Also, couldn’t fault players like Lacazette – who does have the quality to play for them – for looking at the way they play and think ‘I would love to be a part of that.’
Lacazette is our best player hands down.
We drew with Watford 2-2, but City beat Watford 8-0 However Norwich beat City 3-2 and Burnley beat Norwich 2-0 We beat Burnley 2-1, so technically we’re better than City…. ……I agree the gap between ourselves and City+Liverpool is huge, they’re currently the two best sides on the planet, but our team doesn’t have a structure, because there is no structure, because it’s a new team with a lot of young players, and we’ve had a huge turnover of players in the last few years. The only real quality experienced players we have are Lacazette,Aubameyang, Leno. The rest are Guendouzi… Read more »
The gap is indeed there but not that big, with our current squad I will say it is down to just bad coaching, last weekend game Watford were really bad up until we decided to get them back in it. With good management we could have easily won 5- 6 nil, well that happened. Also there is a good coaching because with Man City defensive part if it was our manager we would be loosing week in week out, imagine 34yrs midfield fernandinho, and a 30 something error prone otamendi as current centre back partners with a attacking Midfielder playing… Read more »
According to Xhaka, we were scared of Watford. That’s a scary thought in itself. Agree that a big part of the gap is down to poor management.
The attitude isn’t even right. The interim captain saying we were scared against Watford.
He was simply telling the truth, we played as if we were scared in the second half. Don’t have a problem him speaking the truth.
There is no reasonable argument that Luiz/Sokratis is not a better centre half pairing than Fernandinho (great player, but out of position and probably not match-fit anyway) and Otamendi (the Argentine Mustafi)min terms of both quality and experience. The amazing difference between our performance against Watford and Man City’s can’t be ascribed to that.
I expect more from Pepe too.
Must be hard to adapt to a team thats playing so bad and all over the place hey??
Not worried about him yet at all – once he gets the ball and a bit of space you can see he’s causing the defenders all kinds of problems. Needs a goal to his name to lift the spirit and get going.
Pepe isn’t a finished product as a player yet. He is only a little ahead of our academy graduates. He will be sharp soon but won’t be clinical for another year or two. I mean clinical to Sterling level. Iwobi would have helped more in the games so far but Pepe is about the future.
“He is playing well but also we need in our organisation to be strong with every player to improve a lot”.
Wtf does this even mean? This man does not know how to use… Words.
the art of confusion..lol
Not just words,he can’t use players either.
He has a lot to adapt to. New club. New language. New city and culture. New place to live etc. Wait, there’s more. New formation every week. One week he’s a right winger, one week he’s a striker.
Just stick to a bloody 433 formation and stick 1 anchorman + 2 box to box CMs and pepe on the right. Train well and become masters of that formation. Otherwise we fans are also getting confused!
Simple solution: Remove Sideshow luiz and Grenade xhaka.
As Xhaka was one of our best players against Frankfurt and formed a great partnership with Torreira I hope that continues
Didn’t we still concede 24 shots on our goal? They had a bag-full of chances, so it couldn’t have been that good!
4-2-1-3 would be nice to see, when Lacazette is back. Ceballos, Willock, or even (if Emery decides it is okay to use one of the finest creators in football) Ozil behind the front three.
Personally I’d get Pepe dribbling in and around the opponent’s box. We are potentially passing up penos and set pieces from advantageous positions.
We need to vary our threats each game instead of this over-reliance on Auba. Kane has scored against us virtually every match due to penalties conceded not necessarily that he was having a good game.
In the 95/96 season we signed a forward who had a little bit of a settling in period, where things weren’t exactly coming off for him on the pitch. At the time, elements of the fanbase were getting a little impatient and hoping we hadn’t signed a flop, there were rumblings of frustration in the stands on match days. It took that forward until the 23rd of September, 7 league games into the season, before everything clicked for him. Scoring twice that day and having a good all round performance, his confidence grew and he never looked back. That person… Read more »
If you considered history and decided to draw parallels, then Dennis flourished only after Bruce Rioch was sacked and replaced by one legendary manager – Arsenal. https://amp.sportsmole.co.uk/football/arsenal/on-this-day/feature/otd-arsenal-sign-dennis-bergkamp_227826.html “ Inter actually took a big dent in the £12m they had themselves splashed out to land Bergkamp from Ajax just two years prior, with unhappy president Massimo Moratti claiming that Arsenal would be lucky to see their new star signing score double figures during his first season in England. The controversial Italian chief did not appear to be too far wrong, in fact, when the skilful forward took seven games to get… Read more »
Damn autocorrect!!
One legendary manager – Arsene obviously
Well that is very true Aaron, I can’t deny that, he very much did flourish under Arsene’s tutelage. The new system suited him and the addition of Veira and Petit to the midfield to form a rock solid base to build off, allowed him the freedom to roam and play in the style that made him so effective. Would a new manager do the same for Pepe ? Possibly yes, though at this point I think it’s moot because we won’t be getting a new manager this season as things stand. That said, my previous comment stands. Once Bergkamp had… Read more »
Absolutely. Pepe should be afforded the time he needs to adapt. It usually takes half a season for anyone to get used to a new team and a new league.
His talent is clear as day for all to see, if only we can have a solid double pivot and allow Ozil or Ceballos to provide for the front three.
I dont think any combination of Torreira or Guendouzi or Willock or Xhaka can provide that base and that’s a shame.
You could say the same for Henry, who took I think 10 games to get off the mark? and then continually got stronger season on season. Same with Pires who took a while to settle…. Lacazette was a lightweight in his first season, but was a completely different animal last season, going on to win our player of the season. Players take time to settle. People were writing off Keita + Fabinho just into the new year, now they’re flying. Guendouzi 20 + Torreira 23, give these lads 2 seasons and they’ll go up a few levels, and find some… Read more »
I think it took Thierry until his 9th game to score – not bad once he started though!
I also believe Dennis and Thierry both scored their first goals versus Southampton – shame we don’t play them before end of November.
Glenn Helder = legend to me, just for that assist alone
Pepe is a good player no doubt, only thing missing right now from his game is desire and hunger on the pitch. He just needs to want the ball more, be willing to run more and work twice as hard. This goes for all the players really, they seem scared to go out and play even with teams they are much better than. Unai just needs to build on his and the entire squads confidence and let them go out there and play.
Off topic sorry, but is todays game on TV anywhere?
Total Sportek!
Thanks mate
Now thrill us Arsenal. Enough of melodrama.
Video sessions. I swear I am at a loss for words.
Many sofa specialists critisizing Emery in the last couple of weeks. This is a team in the making, loads of both young and new players, yet he´s getting the stick. Transition phase will be loaded with ups and downs and this team will be great after a couple of seasons. Patience is a virtue.
After a season you expect improvement. There has been none. EmeryOut
After just 5 matches with new players who haven’t gelled and injured players returning and of course Tierney your knee jerk comment is idiotic
We can’t wait and don’t want to wait any longer for the return of top four football to Arsenal — it has to return convincingly this season. No one is expecting Arsenal to become serious contenders for the league this season under Emery, but everyone expects the team to show enough to deserve a top four finish and to be an exciting team to watch. No more excuses.
We won’t be title contenders any season with Emery in charge. He coaches with his handbrake perpetually on. We need a real protagonist at the helm to unlock the latent killer force in this team. If you look closely, Arsenal’s current players are good enough to keep average teams – teams 10th in the league and below – almost perpetually on the back foot during games. But we are making Newcastle, Burnley, Watford look better than they really are. That is all on Emery. He has to leave at the end of the season…if he’s still here by then. The… Read more »
I’m afraid the only reason anyone can be patient is because they know it’ll work out in the end. Can’t say the same about Unai and his “emery-ball”.
**and that the player is undergoing video sessions with the club’s coaches to get a better understanding of what is needed of him.** I think this issue of video things is killing players confidence, allows them to express what they can do. Video after video after match can sometimes couse confusion.
Coaching VAR. It can only lead to confusion.
We are not starting games fast enough. If we had a bit more pace to the start of games we would blow people away. Instead it’s all too tentative and laboured.
My take; the manager has a reactionary and cautious personality. As such we play in a less aggressive manner so that he can see how the other team is playing before we try to “adapt”. Of course, this is only speculation, as our “style” (or even tactics) have confused the shit out of me since UE took over.
I bet that Pepe will have achieved a dribbling trophy by the end of season :))
He’s more raw than I expected but the talent is there. Unfortunately I’m not sure Emery is the guy to get it out of him, especially if Pepe has to learn a new system every damn week! He doesn’t even know who his bloody captain is…
We’re all excited about Pepe and want him to boss the league, but being realistic, he has been bad. His final pass and finishing is as bad as Iwobi or Gervinho.
As for Emery, he needs to take a long hard look at himself
Fancy him to get his first goal today (and I think it’s going to be a 25/30 yard screamer)
Maybe just maybe playing him on the wing without the whole team defending on two lines like we’re fucking Stoke or Burnley mig help him. Just maybe
I said it once and I’ll say it again: Pepe is just a stronger version of Gervinho. His off the ball moves are great but once he gets the ball he can’t sort his feet , can’t offer a decent pass, doesn’t have any vision what to do just to run with the ball forward like a headless chicken.
Apart from speed he offers absolutely nothing.
And he’s 24 already, not a teenager, he won’t improve technically anymore.
Just like AOC, another hyped who didn’t improve at all since 6-7 yrs ago.