Ahead of their 1-0 win against LAFC, the Whitecaps acquired Nelson Pierre (20) permanently from the Philadelphia Union.  Pierre had been on loan from Philadelphia’s first team to WFC2, a slightly odd arrangement that made him ineligible for MLS call-ups. Pierre had been on fire in MLS Next Pro, leading the league in scoring with 9 goals in 13 appearances. So, I wanted to take a look at what the Whitecaps are getting and how Pierre’s performances compare to past MLSNP standouts.

Firstly, a look at what style of player the Whitecaps are getting. Pierre has played primarily as a striker for WFC2 but has also seen some minutes on the wing. He has an impressive physical profile, being listed as 6’2 and 180 pounds and being very quick for a player that big.

Here is a quick look at how Pierre compares to other strikers who have played at least 500 MLSNP minutes this season using ASA’s G+ model.

As we can see, Pierre is around the 75th percentile in most areas. G+ does not like his passing this season and his receiving is a little on the low side as well. This is perhaps a function of Pierre playing some minutes in wide areas and drifting out of traditional #9 positions when he has played as a striker. His dribbling stands out as a major strength, a testament to his technical ability.

But how does Pierre’s MLSNP performance compare to previous MLSNP standouts. Well, here is a collection of attacking players who performed well in MLSNP and then had varying degrees of MLS success.

If we look at non-penalty xG+xA/96, that is to say just getting shots and creating shots for others, Pierre looks extremely strong. He is second in this group for non-penalty xG+xA/96, even beating out the age 21 seasons USMNT’s Patrick Aygemang and CanMNT’s Tani Oluwaseyi at only 20 years old. But when it comes to G+, which takes into account more parts of the game, Pierre looks to be more on par with players like Iuri Tavares and Bernard Kamungo, players who are mainly depth or rotational options at this point in their career. Now, the Whitecaps only gave up 50k in GAM to get Pierre and he is a domestic player so even if he only turns into a rotational piece that’s still pretty good value.

So which piece of information should we take more seriously? Well, if we go back to the bar chart we can see that Pierre’s G+ is being torpedoed by his passing. Sometimes G+ can be influenced significantly by a one-off catastrophic event, like giving the ball away in your own penalty area or something like that (that’s why it’s important to watch the games as well as look at the stats). I don’t recall any moments like that for Pierre, though I must admit I have not watched every single second of MLSNP action this season. He has managed 0.1 xA/96 which would normally be pretty positive for a goal-scorer but doesn’t necessarily stand out in a high-scoring league like MLSNP. It’s also worth noting that in Pierre’s age 18 season G+ saw him as an above average passer. So it’s possible there is some weirdness in the data that is underrating Pierre.

Taking the stats and my own viewings as a whole, I think Pierre is probably one level down from Aygemang and Oluwayesi. But for 50k in GAM I will take that! Of course, projecting these guys is not an exact science. If you only had the MLSNP stats available to you, you would pick Jacen Russell-Rowe to be the biggest star of this group and so far that has not been the case (though he is still only 22, he could still hit another gear). But if I had to plant my flag I would say Pierre can provide solid depth for the Whitecaps right now and has the potential to develop into an above-average starter at the MLS level.

(Images: Vancouver Whitecaps FC)