Joao Pedro signs for Chelsea. Another Brighton player, another somewhat hefty sum.

But weirdly, I’m completely okay with it. Or maybe not weirdly, I’m not a massive hater of the signings we make…

Anyways, Joao Pedro is a nice signing and represents a clear intention from the club that for once they might actually be backing a manager with what he wants.

I am under no illusions that briefs saying Maresca wants A or B are to be taken with a pinch of salt but I do also believe that Maresca probably does actually want Joao Pedro, or at least his profile.

So, why Joao Pedro?

Joao Pedro is a slightly worse Joao Felix and Nkunku but works harder. 

Maresca isn’t a silly man. He simply can’t be based off what we’ve seen, who he’s worked with and the experience he possesses in football.

He also almost definitely sees things that people who understand exponentially less about football also see – Joao Felix and Nkunku are pretty lazy. 

Joao Felix is nice on the eye but he lacks end product, barely scores any goal to actually change a game state and hasn’t really actually done anything major of note in his entire career.

Does this make him a bad player? No, but it doesn’t justify him being someone we can consistently rely on.

I don’t think it’s an outrageous thing that clearly the club and Maresca don’t think Joao Felix can properly impact this Chelsea team, and they’re probably right. 

I would like to clarify that Felix probably isn’t as lazy as I’ve actually made him out to seem, but he is generally just poor and inconsistent off the ball. 

Who is as lazy as I’ve described though is Nkunku of the last season.

I’ve watched him almost his entire career and wouldn’t say he was a ‘lazy’ player and given the Club World Cup so far, he also doesn’t appear as ‘lazy’ as sometimes he’s made out to be.

But what Nkunku is, is a very unfortunate situation where the move just doesn’t really work.

Nkunku isn’t cut out for the high pressing constant work ethic that modern day possession based teams desire.

That doesn’t mean Nkunku is a bad player – in fact, he’s a very very good player.

It’s just an unfortunate reality of the situation that Nkunku just isn’t cut out for Maresca’s style of play especially if the front line is housing someone like Cole Palmer too.

If Palmer was not in the equation, I could very easily see Nkunku playing in the ten position and being highly effective there. 

What I am saying is also not fan fiction, but something Maresca himself has alluded too all season.

He’s said many times that it is impossible sometimes to find the balance by fitting in all three attacking players as it is as important to defend, as it is to attack. 

Joao Pedro, as I’ve just said, is a harder-working and more press-reliable version of Nkunku and Felix.

No, Joao Pedro does not have the flair of Joao Felix and he probably doesn’t have the finishing of Nkunku, but he does still offer excellent abilities between the lines.

Pedro also has the upside of being a hard worker and an intelligent presser (makes sense considering he worked under Roberto De Zerbi). 

I see players like Joao Pedro as the modern day ‘working’ versions of Joao Felix and Nkunku who unfortunately became rather obsolete at top teams a couple years ago.

They’re both top players that generally suffer from them just not being built to press and work hard defensively.

Would they do well somewhere? Absolutely. Nkunku can absolutely do well in most of Europe.

Felix can do well maybe in a league like Italy given some stability in his career.

But Joao Pedro, while maybe not being as gifted as both, isn’t obsolete and offers what modern teams need.

Fundamentally, that is what gets him in the team ahead of those players. 

Why is Joao Pedro good?

The data says so and so does watching him is the short answer. 

It’s quite hard to draw percentile conclusions as he plays so many roles his data is obviously inconsistent.

But there’s enough to see that he is at the very least pretty effective at whatever he’s being asked to do. 

He is just a good player. I’m not expecting Joao Pedro to score 15 goals and get 10 assists next season but I am expecting a lot of Chelsea fans to think very differently of him by the end of next season.

He’s a large guy, tall, strong and will cover ground well off the ball while being an effective carrier on it.

He is a player that has the ability to come up with solutions to problems at a high level and for that alone, he’s worth the gamble.

Futhermore, he is an alternative to a Xavi Simons / Morgan Rogers role wise as he enables us to overlap a fullback whilst also offering actual defensive contribution in the middle of the attack.

In addition to this, he is a genuine creative threat between the lines and that utilises his skillset the most. 

So… good signing?

I say yes. There’s not too much to say about the signing because he really is what he appears on the surface – a good player that does a lot of stuff and should be pretty good.

I’d find it hard to see how that doesn’t happen. Personality concerns, maybe not being utilised as well as possible are the only things that could somehow turn this move sour. 

Joao Pedro represents, in my eyes, a shift towards actually backing a manager with a player they want and most importantly need.