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I have to wonder if there are actually people out there watching fucking Levante blast through our midfield attack after attack and then in all seriousness go like "wauw, look at young Pedri's calmness in that pass back to Pique, what a sensitive area, what a precocious young player he is"

Is this a meme thing or is it serious?

Game after game we have this guy on who just doesn't do anything. What did he do with his 50-60 passes today? What came of them? He's a droning hum, just flowing with the temperament of the game. Not changing anything (for the better or the worse). A complete alibi player.

It's pretty simple. Football matches are won in short bursts of action, of sudden charges against the grain. This guy is incapable of participating in any such actions.

He hasn't really shown any indication that he can do more at this level than sort of avoid losing the ball. Once (or if) he starts showing signs that he can actually be a competitive player, he should get more chances. Until then, he shouldn't be more than a 85th minute relief sub.

Switching to Dortmund - Leipzig in the break and watching the tempo jump made it seem like I had been watching a training match.

Muscle fatigue doesn't really. Being out of breath does.

Expecting him to do more than one single good thing in an appearance is expecting him to carry the team?

suppose it was the fatigue deteriorating his cognitive abilities as well, forcing him to make stupid passes and run straight into opponents?

i've seen depressed 18 year goth girls move with more excitement

A good rest would surely help but if it's a week since your last game and you move around like that from the first minute, then you have another problem.

It was a fixed premise thought experiment to illustrate how stats like ball progression and ball retention are meaningless in a vacuum. Nothing to do with Pedri as a player really, more to do with using dumb measures to evaluate him.

the only way i'd ever consider ball retention or ball progression a meaningful statistic in discriminating VIRTUE and not TYPE would be tying in correlations with xA or something

which part of the scenario do you find implausible? in some way or other, the bulk of midfield players' attacking dispositions will map on to these two archetypes

Player A and player B receive the ball 4 times in similar situations. Player A makes two safe pass and two riskier plays. One of the plays fail. The other one he pulls off and he sets up a goal. Player B makes makes four safe plays, carrying the ball forward by unthreateting paths, addings...

When watching other midfield talents make bold plays, break through lines, give penetrating passes and score goals, I'll be sure to remind myself of Pedri's unassailable ability to take a lot of touches before losing or passing the ball.

People need to look at the state of top football. It should be an obvious fact that Spanish teams haven't been pushed enough on the physical side of the game. Top English teams are miles ahead and it's showing. Both on fitness but also on straight up pace and physicality. We had the arrogance...

That one episode where he was tracking Soldado who was running with the ball and instead of doing anything at all, Pique just kept his distance as Soldado waltzed right into the box. Imagine if that had been a good striker....

I think he's a much more interesting player than Gaya. He impresses every time I watch him. Great mentality too.

Yeah but that's the stakes a defender has to navigate constatly. Being passive or active is a balance. That's the art of defending. Here, I have no doubt that a top defender could have done way more.