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Ayozé Pérez (now playing for Villarreal)

ponsaelius

by ponsaelius
in Football

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Tiresias

Tiresias

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Upfront with nothing forwards even when he wins the ball back he is isolated and quickly dispossessed normally. Up front with a beast like Rondon and what a shock his game is transformed. He's never going to be a messi or even a ben arfa who can beat players just by himself but is a wonderful partner up front with Rondon.

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Anderson

Anderson

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He just needs to start consistent at the start of seasons, always seems to end them in very good form.

 

Again, it's dependent on those around him. Kenedy and Almirion coming in, and lessening the burden on him, have revitalised him in both seasons leading to him hitting top form.

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NEEJ

NEEJ

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Quite often when researching statistics for this column, I spot certain players who I didn’t expect to be performing so well.

 

“My God, Ryan Fraser (66) has created more chances than Bernardo Silva (53)”. “Blooming ‘eck, Michael Keane (158) has won more headers than Virgil van Dijk (142).”

 

Another man who often crops up is Ayoze Pérez. So after he helped Newcastle to come back from two goals down to beat Everton, this week’s Game Dissected looks at a player who got so much criticism he embraced it as part of his goal celebration.

 

Up there with the big-six stars

After scoring his second goal in Newcastle’s 3-2 win on Saturday Pérez stood with his fingers in his ears, beaming at Newcastle fans, before being mobbed by his team-mates.

 

Many have suggested the Pérez celebration was a response to criticism he had received both from Newcastle fans and pundits alike. George Caulkin explained how Pérez is developing a good relationship with fellow forward Salomón Rondón and it seems Pérez is having a strong season, playing off and around Rondón.

 

 

The graphic below is the kind of statistical surprise I referred to earlier. When looking at chances created by forwards this season we have the usual suspects like Eden Hazard and Mo Salah and then, just behind Wilfried Zaha, is Pérez.

 

 

The Spaniard’s 38 chances created from 2,295 minutes played in the Premier League this season is better than Wolves’s Raúl Jiménez (36 from 2,472), Liverpool’s Sadio Mané (31 from 2,365) and Harry Kane (29 from 2,247).

 

 

Indeed Pérez has created two more chances this season than he did in the whole of the last campaign. That’s certainly impressive and he was at his creative best when getting Newcastle back into the game on Saturday. The image below is the start of the move which led to Rondón making it 2-1.

 

 

Isaac Hayden plays a lofted pass in behind the Everton defence and Pérez makes a run into space. Rondón has dropped short in front of the back four.

 

The pair show the benefit of their two respective moves in the next image, below.

 

 

Pérez outjumps Keane (maybe he’s not so good at heading after all), knocking the ball down for Rondón who has been left in space by Kurt Zouma.

 

Rondón takes a touch before feeding the ball straight back to Pérez, below.

 

 

Note the position of Pérez’s body as he receives the ball — with his back to goal. With the Everton defenders converging on him, and with Rondón making a run to the back post, Pérez manages to control the ball and spin around in one movement.

 

That means the Newcastle forward is able to then dink a perfect pass to Rondón, below.

 

 

It was a brilliant goal and ticked all the boxes for intelligent and effective forward play by Pérez — intelligent runs, clever header, awareness of team-mates’ movement, perfectly weighted pass.

 

Pérez showed good intelligence for his first goal which made it 2-2. The image below shows Miguel Almirón picking up the ball before he shoots.

 

 

Everton at this point had switched to a back three with Yerry Mina joining Keane and Zouma in central defence. Again Pérez shows good positional sense and anticipates his team-mates’ actions, and is in front of Zouma and ready to dart in behind Keane and fire home after Almirón’s shot was parried by the Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

 

As the image below shows, Pérez was the player who won the first of several corners as Newcastle searched for a winner, taking the ball down the wing before firing a cross against Zouma.

 

 

And Pérez was clever for the winner too, as the image below shows.

 

 

With the ball in the air and Everton players appealing for offside as Rondón positions himself to win possession, Pérez, who was walking back from an offside position, has his hands raised in the classic “I’m not involved, please don’t flag me offside” pose.

 

But while that might be the message he’s trying to give across, his body position says otherwise, ready to pounce, as he did firing in the winner after Rondón brought the ball down, his sixth league goal of the season.

 

More than goals and assists

If you weren’t surprised by Pérez’s creative ability this season did you know he’s one of the best defensive forwards in the Premier League?

 

 

As the graphic above shows the 25-year-old has recovered possession more often than any forward this season and is also best for interceptions too. Indeed he was top for interceptions last season (24) and the sixth-best forward for recoveries (132) but it is interesting that, as with his chances created tally, he has already made more interceptions this season than he did last.

 

Still not impressed? OK well, as the graphic below shows, Pérez has made the most tackles of any forward this season and is fourth-best for winning the ball back high up the pitch.

 

 

As we have discussed in this column before when analysing Roberto Firmino and Callum Wilson, being good at winning the ball back and pinching possession is one of the key traits of the modern-day forward and it is no wonder that Pérez is an integral part of Rafa Benítez’s team.

 

So integral in fact that when it comes to minutes played in the league this season only goalkeeper Martin Dubravka (2,700) has featured more than Pérez (2,295) who has played 60 minutes more than any other Newcastle outfield player.

 

Pérez is clearly a talented forward and, playing alongside Rondón and Almirón, his ability will shine through. The statistics suggest that he is improving under Benítez and given he is not 26 until the summer has plenty of time to win over doubters who remain.

 

Take those fingers out of your ears, Ayoze — there’s only compliments coming your way.

 

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