What Joao Pedro brings to Brighton: Pace, passing and potential

Chris Wilder saw enough in his two months in charge of Watford at the end of last season’s Championship to be convinced Joao Pedro is a shrewd buy for Brighton & Hove Albion.

It was a short relationship, with Wilder only in place for the last nine of Joao Pedro’s 109 appearances for Watford before the 21-year-old Brazilian made the £30million ($37.9m) move last month, shattering Brighton’s previous record transfer fee of £20million paid to Portsmouth for central defender Adam Webster three years ago.

“He’s a super-talented player,” says Wilder. “He wants to win, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a great move for him. He needed to get out of Watford because he was the main man. Now, he won’t be the main man at Brighton.

“As a lad, he’s as good as gold. He will be told (at Brighton) to play quicker, limit his touches, to play his position, but he’s athletically strong, quick and he’s got ability. He sees a pass, he can finish. I think it’s the perfect move. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets in, does well and potentially goes (moves on) again.”

Watford were four points outside the play-offs with 11 games to go when Wilder succeeded Slaven Bilic on a short-term contract in March, becoming their third head coach of the season.

The 55-year-old Yorkshireman, who briefly played for Brighton in their fourth-tier days in the late 1990s, had hoped to repeat the promotion to the Premier League he achieved with Sheffield United in 2018-19. However, those hopes were dashed by a run of three wins, three draws and five defeats that resulted in Watford finishing 11th, six points off a play-off place.

Joao Pedro’s form over that period matched the team’s collective output: inconsistent.

Wilder says of the conclusion to the South American’s three and a half years at Vicarage Road: “He epitomised where we were, at times brilliant and at times incredibly frustrating. For his benefit as well, he needed a new challenge.

“The biggest thing for me is he will be going into a changing room that won’t have mixed messages, that is full of characters — Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster, Danny Welbeck. There are a lot of leaders in there and he’ll have to buckle down and get on with it. At Watford he was just given licence to set the agenda really and, as a 21-year-old, he maybe needs that (guidance) more than anything.”

The free-spirited nature of Joao Pedro’s game at Watford was both a benefit and a hindrance: a benefit because of his appetite to get on the ball and make things happen, a hindrance because of a tendency to drift into areas of the pitch that would affect the structure of the team.

One of his biggest assets is his dribbling. In the 1-0 defeat away to Queens Park Rangers in March — Wilder’s first match in charge — he completed 10 dribbles, the most by any player in a Championship game all season. (And of the four times a player completed nine dribbles in a single fixture, all but one of those performances was by him.)

Grabs from that game at Loftus Road show Joao Pedro collecting possession from a throw-in near halfway, with his back to goal.

He turns away from his marker and has the strength to hold off a challenge…

… then drives forward and evades another tackler…

… and another…

… before he is eventually brought down. That challenge resulted in a booking for QPR midfielder Tim Iroegbunam and a Watford free kick in a dangerous position just outside the penalty area.

Wilder says: “A lot of football nowadays is played in a certain way to manoeuvre the ball past people as a team. They (Brighton) have got a player (in the Brazilian) that, numerically, can give you an advantage by going past people.”

Joao Pedro already has Premier League experience. He signed for Watford from Fluminense in January 2020 when they were in the top flight, having progressed through the junior ranks of the Rio de Janeiro club to make his senior debut at the age of 17.

He moved further up the pitch with Fluminense, going from a defensive midfielder to an attacking one before developing into a versatile striker in England.

Joao Pedro was introduced to the Premier League with three substitute appearances totalling 22 minutes late in that 2019-20 season, after its three-month lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which ended with Watford being relegated. The last of those outings was as an 88th-minute replacement in the 3-2 season-finale defeat away to Arsenal that sealed their fate, a day when Welbeck (now a team-mate again at the Amex Stadium) scored the visitors’ second goal.

Watford’s tumble out of the top flight was accompanied by more of their familiar upheaval in the dugout — Joao Pedro made those fleeting contributions in their fourth and fifth managerial reigns that season: Nigel Pearson and, in his second spell in interim charge of that campaign, Hayden Mullins.

He then provided nine goals and three assists in 38 league appearances, 31 of them starts, as Watford were promoted straight back to the Premier League in 2020-21 under two more managers, Vladimir Ivic and Xisco.

Wilder says: “He played down the middle, the nine, for Watford when they went up. Not as a target man but coming and linking.

“He’s a really bright footballer, (who can be used) anywhere at the top of the pitch. He can play off the left, he can play off the right, he can play as a 10. They played 4-3-3 when they went up — (Ismaila) Sarr played on the right and Ken Sema played on the left.

“I think he’s better when he gets in little pockets, gets half-turned and can pick a pass, drive forward or get on the end of stuff from the other side (of the pitch) as well.”

Although Watford went straight back down again — on that occasion under a combination of Xisco, Claudio Ranieri and Roy Hodgson — Joao Pedro had more Premier League opportunities than in his debut season at that level, making 28 appearances, although only 15 were starts.

The first of his three goals that season, in added time as a late substitute in a 4-1 thumping of Manchester United in the November that led to the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, showed off his movement and finishing.

He makes a run into the box between two United defenders to latch onto a pass from Emmanuel Dennis.

Once he has a sight of goal, Joao Pedro rifles a shot through the legs of David de Gea with his favoured right foot.

Joao Pedro, who is 6ft (182cm), also demonstrated his aerial prowess in a 1-1 draw away to Newcastle United in the January.

Eddie Howe’s side were leading after 87 minutes and didn’t seem to be in much danger when Kiko Femenia made a run down Watford’s right.

When the cross came in from Femenia (out of picture in the next screengrab), Joao Pedro rose above Jamaal Lascelles to plant a perfectly placed header past goalkeeper Martin Dubravka into the top corner, securing a point.

That was Ranieri’s penultimate game in charge, with Hodgson replacing him later that month.

Speaking about Joao Pedro’s best position, the former England manager has said: “He’s best centrally, in a trident with two forwards prepared to make runs behind defenders. Then he can drop and be a deep-lying target player. He’s very skilful. He’s got a very good technique. He’s got good pace and is able to run past people with the ball.”

Joao Pedro had his highest Watford return of goals back in the 2022-23 Championship (11 in 31 starts and four substitute appearances). That tally exceeded his expected goals (xG) figure for the season of 8.8, based on the quality of the chances he had.

He displayed the opportunism of a goalscorer in a 1-1 draw away to eventual champions Burnley in February after goalkeeper Arijanet Muric made a mess of dealing with a long ball forward. Joao Pedro picked himself up off the floor in a chaotic passage of play to make a run in the middle as Sema shaped to cross, before finishing off the move with a left-footed finish to give Watford the lead.

Joao Pedro made the majority of his appearances over the past two seasons as a centre-forward and the second-most playing off the left — which Wilder regards as his most effective role. He also played as a second striker and occasionally as an attacking midfielder.

Having signed for Brighton on a five-year contract, he will have to fight for a place with old Watford colleague Welbeck, 18-year-old Evan Ferguson, Deniz Undav, 19-year-old Paraguayan Julio Enciso and dribbling Japanese left-winger Kaoru Mitoma. Although, there will be more games to go around next season with six Europa League group fixtures on top of their domestic commitments.

It will be fascinating to see how De Zerbi fits him in.

(Top photo: Alex Livesey via Getty Images)