Perhaps some of you will say "many things" but we are here to look at his perceived failure to be a creative force in the minors. Lucas "Papi" Peioxoto was an early pick in the S23 Hollywood draft for good reason. He had shown plenty of creative excellence in the academy and was expected to immediately contribute for a Kaapstad side that has consistently been in the hunt for the Minors trophy. We are now through 7 minors games and Papi has yet to assist a goal. Through 7 games in the academy he had already assisted 8 goals, so where lies the problem? Perhaps his good performances in the academy were a mirage. Papi was the most prolific corner taker in the academy with 5 of his first 8 assists coming off corners. Without corner duties to prop up his stats perhaps he was always due to come back down to earth.
Believers in Papi should take comfort in a few key metrics that might show his creativity has not fallen off a cliff. We will condense the sample size to 5 games as that is as far as our advanced statistics go. Through 5 games Papi is tied for first place in the minors with 20 key passes from open play, and tied for 2nd with 45 progressive passes. These are areas where Papi performed quite poorly(for his standards) in the academy. He is also 2nd in the minors in expected assists with 3.56 through the first 5 games. This tracks with his academy performance where he led in xa. Despite the flashy assist numbers being down the underlying creative metrics have remained similar or even improved compared to the academy. He might not reach the same heights without corner duties to inflate the assist numbers but I would expect at least a small turnaround. Hopefully it can coincide with Kaapstad shaking off the bad start and getting back to their winning ways.
Believers in Papi should take comfort in a few key metrics that might show his creativity has not fallen off a cliff. We will condense the sample size to 5 games as that is as far as our advanced statistics go. Through 5 games Papi is tied for first place in the minors with 20 key passes from open play, and tied for 2nd with 45 progressive passes. These are areas where Papi performed quite poorly(for his standards) in the academy. He is also 2nd in the minors in expected assists with 3.56 through the first 5 games. This tracks with his academy performance where he led in xa. Despite the flashy assist numbers being down the underlying creative metrics have remained similar or even improved compared to the academy. He might not reach the same heights without corner duties to inflate the assist numbers but I would expect at least a small turnaround. Hopefully it can coincide with Kaapstad shaking off the bad start and getting back to their winning ways.
![[Image: Lucas-Peioxoto-Signature.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/QCSCbc6y/Lucas-Peioxoto-Signature.png)
![[Image: ySrStzC.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/ySrStzC.jpeg)
![[Image: lisfor-3.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/sDzJYqYM/lisfor-3.png)
