Neal Maupay
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Neal Maupay
Current Club: Marseille.
Previous Clubs: Everton, Brighton & Hove Albion, Brentford, Saint-Etienne, OGC Nice.
Loan Clubs: Marseille, Brentford, Stade Brestois.
International: N/A.
Trophies Won: N/A.
Maupay is a player that is more famous for his shithousery than his play, for very good reason. The reason being that, at Premier League level, he simply is not very good. At Premier League level, his record is 160 apps, 33 goals and 10 assists, nowhere near good enough for a centre-forward. Even at Ligue 1 level, he does not seem up to it, with just 11 goals in 81 appearances and 8 assists.
Sometimes you wonder if winding up the opposition is actually having a negative effect on his game, it certainly does nothing positive and he rarely wins games that involve him being a shithouse. It is actually hard to find anything positive to talk about when it comes to his game. Maupay is not very quick, he is not good in the air, his leap and his timing are poor, he is not strong or tricky on the ball.
His movement and timing of his runs are not good, he is rarely getting into the box at the right time to even get on the end of chances. When he is in there, he is often static, making him easy to mark. Usually you can find good things to say about any player if you watch them enough, but he has no real outstanding quality to his game. Probably the best you can say about Maupay is his workrate is usually excellent.
He is a trier, but the ability just is not there. Even his technique is just decent. Which makes it all the more bizarre that he gets so involved in off the ball stuff, rather than just focusing on making the most out of what he has. It was understandable the falling out with Arsenal, after accidentally injuring Bernd Leno, and the bickering with Matteo Guendouzi over him digging at him and his teammates for how little they earnt compared to him.
But why carry that on after the game? To me, it just feels like the person who is actually getting wound up and losing their head is Maupay, which is why he is unable to just leave it alone when the game is done. The dig at James Maddison of Tottenham Hotspur for failing to make an England squad was particularly embarrassing, he has never been near making the French set up!
There are, however, 2 incidences of Maupay being a shithouse that I can forgive, understand or even get on board with and find funny myself. Firstly, when you are playing for Brighton against bitter rivals Crystal Palace, it is perfectly understandable to wind up their fans by copying the goal celebration of their hero Wilfried Zaha after you just scored against them. Especially as he was at the Palace end when he scored and celebrated.
Secondly, it is impossible to not enjoy seeing him wind up such an odious character as Kyle Walker, when he was at Manchester City. The one that made the least sense to me though, despite it being a dig at Everton, which was kind of funny, was when he posted up on social media, "Whenever I'm having a bad day I just check the Everton score and smile", after the Toffees had lost 2-0 to Nottingham Forest. It is funny, but he was still an Everton player at the time!
In summary, he is a not good enough to play in the top flight and seems intent on sabotaging his own career at the same time. I suppose, at least he is a character, something the game is woefully short of these days, so it is not all bad.
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