8 - Pedro Gonzalez "Pedri"

serghei

serghei

Senior Member
khaled_a_d said:
Defensive instincts are usually the last one to develop.
Xavi started his career as DM, and yet defense was his biggest weakness as CM till he was 28, he lost his concentration and didn't know when to track back most of the time. There was even multiple rumours that Rijkaard was fed up by this several times.

And then, this doesn't make him an AM either, that is making his position by eliminating the other one due to one deficiency.

Pedri lacks both skills and instincts for AM, again in most of his contribution he has been the guy to make a pass to open things rather than the one to make direct assist, frankly which was Xavi role himself before Pep too over.

He doesn't excel that much either playing up front, he lack basic instincts in when to attack space and when to switch places with attackers, he lacks willingness to take risks, his dribbling and ability to break defense also leaves a lot to be desired.

Take a look of available data on fbref for example.
When you compare him to CM/DM midfielders, he is in 95 to 99 percentile in most attacking numbers, you put him against wingers and attacking midfielders, and some of his numbers are as low as 1 percentile (taken shots) or 17 percentile (non-penalty goals) and if you keep digging, non of his numbers are elite.

And I am not sure why bringing Gundogan, who is almost universally considered CM himself
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I understand this argument, but I don't agree to it.

For me, it doesn't matter that much if Pedri has good attacking attributes for a CM, because a CM position has considerably more defensive elements to it, much more compared with playing higher up.

If you are to judge his abilities for CM/DM, you'd need to look at the defensive parameters of the team. Does the team concede more goals when Pedri plays deeper in a CM position? Are CBs more exposed?

You can play him CM in some cases. If you have a very dominating DM, and a very physical fullback. Like City have in Walker and Rodri. But in normal circumstances, without very physical players surrounding Pedri, he is not gonna deliver the goods at CM for me.
 
khaled_a_d

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
serghei said:
I understand this argument, but I don't agree to it.

For me, it doesn't matter that much if Pedri has good attacking attributes for a CM, because a CM position has considerably more defensive elements to it, much more compared with playing higher up.

If you are to judge his abilities for CM/DM, you'd need to look at the defensive parameters of the team. Does the team concede more goals when Pedri plays deeper in a CM position? Are CBs more exposed?

You can play him CM in some cases. If you have a very dominating DM, and a very physical fullback. Like City have in Walker and Rodri. But in normal circumstances, without very physical players surrounding Pedri, he is not gonna deliver the goods at CM for me.
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Again, that doesn't make him AM either
 
serghei

serghei

Senior Member
khaled_a_d said:
Again, that doesn't make him AM either
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Well, if you go down this route, I prefer selling him and buying a better AM. I said he could be an excellent attacking midfielder if the pace of the game was lower, or if he ups his physical level considerably.

As I don't think pace in the game is gonna decline in the future, and I doubt he can become a proper athlete, I'd cash in.
 
J

jamrock

Senior Member
If you look at Silva's stats compared to most AM back in the day, they would be poor too, doesn't mean he was a CM.

Which is why you never fully statistics.
 
P

Porque

Senior Member
Pedri has more tackles per game than FdJ (except this season where Frenkie has been DMC so they naturally inflated) and the same interceptions per game as guys like Kroos.

When he's fit he is one of the players who covers the most km per game

He is absolutely a CM. May even work as a Pirlo style pivot.

He still needs to find his identity though as despite coming through LP as an attacking player, he hasn't been natural in that role here yet.

And again, I'd put his lethargy this season in the release of the pass more down to him being half a step off the pace and not fully fit, rather than him not being able to play MF.

And it is always a bad idea when you rush someone back from injury into a big game like we did with Pedri before. It never works and does more damage than good. It was even the same when we done it with Messi.
 
Horatio

Horatio

You're welcome
Porque said:
Pedri has more tackles per game than FdJ (except this season where Frenkie has been DMC so they naturally inflated) and the same interceptions per game as guys like Kroos.
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hey bro. I was curious about this and checked fbref. Pedri played 1,547 minutes this season and had 27 tackles.
Frenkie played 2,473 minutes and performed 47 tackles. On average that's in favour of Frenkie. I don't know how the statistics play out if we look at games played but can't assume there would be a significant difference. What source was used on your end?
 
J

jamrock

Senior Member
As a pirlo pivot? Pedri?

Impossible, completely and totally, he'll develop and drop back into Midfield, like Iniesta and be a hybrid like I said before.

But now?, that's just crazy talk, as the saying goes, he couldn't dictate the pace and tempo of the game if his life depending on it right now, none of our midfielders can, because none are true CM.( Excluding gundogan)
 
P

Porque

Senior Member
Horatio said:
hey bro. I was curious about this and checked fbref. Pedri played 1,547 minutes this season and had 27 tackles.
Frenkie played 2,473 minutes and performed 47 tackles. On average that's in favour of Frenkie. I don't know how the statistics play out if we look at games played but can't assume there would be a significant difference. What source was used on your end?
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I used whoscored. Pedri is consistently around. 1.5 while Frenkie is 1-1.2.

Frenkie is up to 2.2 this season per game, but like I said, I think it's more likely that this increase is because he has been played as the DMC since Oriol failed.
 
P

Porque

Senior Member
jamrock said:
As a pirlo pivot? Pedri?

Impossible, completely and totally, he'll develop and drop back into Midfield, like Iniesta and be a hybrid like I said before.

But now?, that's just crazy talk, as the saying goes, he couldn't dictate the pace and tempo of the game if his life depending on it right now, none of our midfielders can, because none are true CM.( Excluding gundogan)
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You may be right. I just think that if we remove his field coverage (and by this I mean his coverage of ground over the whole pitch) then he could concentrate into a good Barcelona (or Pirlo) style pivot.

But then I'm not watching training so I don't know if you get a better player by condensing his offensive game or his defensive game long term.

There's times that he pulls off incredible actions like that Sevilla game winning goal. Then other times it looks like when we placed Busi as a central midfielder and he would have a nosebleed.
 
delancey

delancey

Senior Member
Pedri is not an AM. :lol: His contribution is highly indirect and slow, which has its benefits, but those certainly aren’t in attack.
Pedri, De Jong, and Gavi together = boring stalemate galore. May just be the most monotone and slow midfield in Europe. 🤫

Even Cubarsi is more of an AM threat than Pedri with his ability to see openings and thus penetrate defenses with his fast and direct passing ability (maybe we should try him in a DM role?). In contrast to… holding onto the ball in midfield, twisting and turning a bit, only to pass it out to a winger who is marked by two defenders. Over and over again.

If Pedri is an AM then what is Bellingham? 🤣
 
iniestaGOAT

iniestaGOAT

Senior Member
delancey said:
Pedri is not an AM. :lol: His contribution is highly indirect and slow, which has its benefits, but those certainly aren’t in attack.
Pedri, De Jong, and Gavi together = boring stalemate galore. May just be the most monotone and slow midfield in Europe. 🤫

Even Cubarsi is more of an AM threat than Pedri with his ability to see openings and thus penetrate defenses with his fast and direct passing ability (maybe we should try him in a DM role?). In contrast to… holding onto the ball in midfield, twisting and turning a bit, only to pass it out to a winger who is marked by two defenders. Over and over again.

If Pedri is an AM then what is Bellingham? 🤣
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One is the worst posts of all time.
Cubarsi is more of an AM than pedri?

Put this bum in hall of shame already
 
T

Temptation

Well-known member
delancey said:
Pedri is not an AM. :lol: His contribution is highly indirect and slow, which has its benefits, but those certainly aren’t in attack.
Pedri, De Jong, and Gavi together = boring stalemate galore. May just be the most monotone and slow midfield in Europe. 🤫

Even Cubarsi is more of an AM threat than Pedri with his ability to see openings and thus penetrate defenses with his fast and direct passing ability (maybe we should try him in a DM role?). In contrast to… holding onto the ball in midfield, twisting and turning a bit, only to pass it out to a winger who is marked by two defenders. Over and over again.

If Pedri is an AM then what is Bellingham? 🤣
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He's a number 8, LCM in a 433. He's not a number 10, CAM in a 4231.
 
J

jamrock

Senior Member
People are attacking like midfielders are only just now getting a high number of goals from midfield 🤣🤣.

Kinda like back in the day when some would rate lampard above Silva, Iniesta and the likes.
 
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