Panathinaikos have just agreed a deal to sign Man Utd winger – Facundo Pellistri for a reported €6.5m deal with a sell on clause for Utd. Here we look at how he fared during his short spell at Manchester United.
Pellistri was signed by Manchester United in October 2020 from a Uruguayan club CA Peñarol for a reported fee of €8.5 million (approximately £7.65 million at the time). He was 18 years old when he joined Man Utd and considered a developmental signing at the time, going on two loan spells at Spanish side Deportivo Alaves, where he failed to establish himself as a regular starter.
His return to his parent club didn’t spell a change in fortunes as he alongside some other youngsters like Anthony Elanga had their opportunities limited by several managers.
Both Elanga and Pellestri can claim to be victims of being recruited/developed for specific roles that disappeared when Erik ten Hag came in.
Specialized at running into areas behind the defense to get to those long diagonal passes towards the corner flags — while the most important aspect in how we play is the winger’s ability to drop down and become a passing option wide.
However, it is of popular consensus that though Elanga might be a victim of this theory, Facundo Pellistri was certainly not. Bland loan spells, inability to handle physical fullbacks which isn’t the case with Elanga, Pellistri played under three managers and two of them preferred Elanga ahead of Pellistri.
Many have not quite picked up on the wingers’ role in how ETH uses them, which is the same way Pep, Arteta, Marseca and Ange does too.
In the last three seasons, Pep’s wingers at City have scored — 0.17 G/90 (Doku), 0.2 G/90 (Grealish), 0.26 G/90 (Silva) and Mahrez 0.42 G/90. If you play 30 games in the PL and score at 0.3 G/90, that is 9 goals.
Rashford in 22/23 had a clear custom made ‘left forward’ role, and scored 0.63 G/90. Ajax can score like 119 goals in 38 league games (at least they did in 19/20). No winger under ETH in the Eredivise ever scored more than 0.5 G/90, in comparison with Rash’s 0.63. Neres had 0.5 and Ziyech 0.49.
Erik ten Hag made that adjustment for Rashford, and he has occasionally don’t it when using Garnacho on the right, but no manager will ever tear apart their game plan and completely change how you play to accommodate players like Pellestri and Elanga.
Ultimately, Pellistri showed flashes of brilliance in some games, but overall he just wasn’t up to the required standard to be a mainstay at Man Utd who currently aspire to begin re-challenging for the most prized trophies in the premier league and Europe.