Our new favourite footballer plays for Newell’s Old Boys - The Square Ball 11/11/21
NUEVO AMIGO
Written by Rob Conlon
Maybe every team needs a Pablo to lift them from the malaise
of gloomy times. On Monday, Pablo Perez scored the only goal of the game as
Newell’s Old Boys beat Union de Santa Fe 1-0, recording just their sixth win in
twenty league games this season. Marcelo Bielsa’s old side are now 19th of 26
teams in Argentina’s Primera Division.
Newell’s are currently searching for their fourth manager of
2021 after the recent sacking of Fernando Gamboa, former defender of Bielsa’s
time in charge. Bielsa famously once told young Gamboa he would cut his finger
off if it meant victory in the clasico against Rosario Central. “But then, if
we are lucky enough to win five clasicos, you lose your hand,” Gamboa said.
Bielsa replied, “Gamboa, you do not understand anything, you do not understand
anything.” Gamboa later missed the decisive penalty in Newell’s Copa
Libertadores final defeat to Sao Paulo. When he apologised to Bielsa the next
day, El Loco told him he was crazy.
36-year-old Pablo Perez is one of a number of ageing players
in Newell’s current squad. Against Union, the midfielder was trying to thread
passes to striker and captain Ignacio Scocco, also 36, who was later replaced
by 40-year-old former Liverpool winger Maxi Rodriguez. In a team of two
extremes, Rodriguez is old enough to be the father of right-back Tomas Jacob,
who is just 17.
As Bielsa advocates, the experienced players took
responsibility as Perez chested down a clearance around 25 yards from goal,
half-volleying the ball into the bottom corner and inspiring the commentator
into a ten-second ‘¡GOOOOOLLLLL!’ Before you start telling me it’s an
underwhelming half-volley, take a moment to remember how his namesake Pablo
Hernandez’s even scruffier half-volley against Millwall in the promotion season
made you feel.
🚀 The goal that won the game for #Newells this evening. Pablo Pérez with a 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘻𝘰.
— Newell's Old Boys - English (@Newells_en) November 8, 2021
Pick that out 🙌
(via @TNTSportsAR) pic.twitter.com/Zb9asUkOTZ
It’s a shame I’ve not learned about Perez sooner, because he
seems like a right laugh. In the most recent edition of FIFA, no player
‘betters’ his rating of 95 for aggression, which I think makes him the hardest
footballer in the world. While Perez was playing for Boca Juniors in 2018,
someone even made a dedicated Perez game for Android called ‘Pobla Peres Run’,
in which the aim is to collect yellow cards and dodge the referees brandishing
reds. Despite only being booked once this season, his reputation is well
earned; he received eleven yellow cards in nineteen appearances in 2017/18,
seven in fifteen the following year, and nine in seventeen the year after. What
can you say, the boy loves a booking!
Perez’s aggression rating on the new FIFA may have something
to do with an incident in a clasico against Rosario Central in May. The game
was interrupted in the fourth minute by a drone flying a banner mocking
Newell’s. After a Central player removed the drone from the pitch, Perez made
sure it was decommissioned, by smashing the fuck out of it. Newell’s lost 3-0,
and Perez was subbed off at half-time after — you guessed it — getting booked.
Here's Pablo Pérez stamping on the Central drone at the start of the game 😂 #ClásicoRosarino pic.twitter.com/R0CKSJ1Y6S
— Newell's Old Boys - English (@Newells_en) May 3, 2021
One of the many theories behind Leeds’ slow start to the
campaign has been the failure to replace the experience of Pablo Hernandez and
Gaetano Berardi following their exits at the end of last season. Judging by his
goal and disciplinary record, Perez might just provide the best of both worlds,
and even with Adam Forshaw back fit, another central midfielder wouldn’t go
amiss. Marcelo, Victor, I like this guy. Over to you.
