[limerickcitykid]

Do you want me to spell it out for you?

He wasn't able to get enough game time at seasons start last season when we had a non existent Carrick plus others.

Now he's back and we have Fred replacing Carrick plus everyone else. He hasn't lit up at Valencia and he wasn't even played in the role Mourinho used him in preseason. Fred is a 6, Herrera is a backup 6 and then there's probably him.

This season there's even more competition for the place, so why on earth is it not a good idea for him to go on loan again? It got him good experience last season and he's 22. He needs to play more than just a handful of games, and I'm sure he knows that. In fact it was his choice to go on loan last season for the exact reasons. This season its even more fierce for places.

Do you want me to spell it out for you?

He already went on loan and got experience and improved. Who gives a feck about start of last season. Its the start of this season.

In what world is Fred a 6? If Herrera was a 6 than he'd be playing there.

He is guaranteed to start against Leicester and will feature regularly as a squad player this season.

Competition is hardly fierce anyway. Matic is getting older and won't be fit enough to always play. Fellaini will only be used as a plan B tactic. Fred is brand new to the league and missed most of pre-season, he won't be just starting every single game. McTominay isn't good enough and won't get to play. There is plenty of game time there for Andreas and he'll get it.

 

[TheFlagStaysDown]

Its decision making. Sometimes he plays something too risky, or he tries to do a clever turn but gets into trouble. If he stays in the squad this year i think Mourinho will want to check if he can trust him in cup games first and see how quickly he learns. In the PL the mistakes will cost us. Maybe by the season end he will be getting PL games but i doubt he will start the season.

He played the most minutes in the preseason and impressed in all those games, I am sure he will start few games in the centre mid for us at the beginning of the season due to other players being out, will be interesting to see how players will come back and who plays how much then but Pogba will not be in the line up for the first two games for sure and Matic might miss those games too so he's got time to establish himself, but the two will be starters for Mourinho and he will fight it with Fred and Ander, He also outperformed Ander in the preseason so would say his main competition will be Fred. Also Mourinho was saying that Pereira and Fred are both players who link defence and attack with quick passing so I think he could be used as no8 in more box to box role or like a CM next to Matic. Fellaini is a situational player

 

[sherrinford]

I adressed this in my previous posts. My concern is that he's not yet ready to regularly start as a 6.

So he is ready to regularly start in another position? He is 22 not 18, and is a fully formed player. His ability to progress the play is his defining feature - perhaps a pass or two will be intercepted, overhit or misjudged due to being on a different wavelength from teammates. An acceptable compromise for me, and a not uncommon one seen in midfielders of all roles. I like him as a no.6 personally, and also see him being suited to a no.8 role in a pair or in the left-of-centre no.8 role in a three. In terms of his passing though, how erratic it may be has no bearing, for me, on which position is most suitable.

 

[MadMike]

Also what the hell, Fred is an 8 not a 6. He’s not gonna be the one shielding the defence he’s will be he one pushing up and chasing the ball. Matic is the 6.

As for Andreas he’s being coached into a regista role. Also known as deep lying playmaker. Which is positionally the same as the 6 but with more significant duties in the playmaking department.

I hope Carrick coaches the feck out of him as he played that role brilliantly in his early 30s.

 

[VP89]

'Fred is a 6'

When Matic is injured, herrera goes there or McTominay who has experience deeper. Otherwise itl be Fred that adjusts. Go and look at where Fred played prior to Foncesca joining. He says himself he was used to playing deeper but is now more accustomed to being an 8 under Paulo Foncesca. In other words he is more of a 6 if need be than Perreira would be, who has never fecking played there.

Except that Fred is not a 6 and Herrera is also a better 8 than 6.

See above.

This is an early prediction, but I reckon he’s gonna get 20-odd games this season for us across all comps, which is not too dissimilar from what he’s gonna get on loan.

Herrera is on his final year and he’s getting replaced by Fred long term. I reckon Pereira has a good chance of climbing above him in the pecking order partly due to that and partly because he’s more versatile and can cover for Matic, Pogba or one of the attacking mids like Mata/Lingard.

While a player belongs to you, you need to try him out for a season. Not every game of course but enough games to see if he’s got what it takes to make it here. Loan moves alone will never prove that. This is the year for Pereira to do that and I think both Mourinho and him realise that.

This is a good post and I see where you're coming from. I don't know how much Mourinho trusts him now (Perreira) but I just thought he's still not as polished on ball keeping as he should be to be a 6 for us regularly. Weirdly that started a few sensitive posters getting agitated and quoting me left right and centre on it.

Fred isn't a 6, nor is he a Carrick replacement, jeez

I just said Carrick out Fred in from a transfer perspective. Obviously Matic will take Carricks role.

My post was obvious in illustrating that Peirerra has more competition this year than last. Seeing as it was his own decision to go on loan last year, he'd benefit from going in loan this year. He needs regular games not handfuls..

 

[limerickcitykid]

McTominay has just about no experience as a 6. He will not be starting over Andreas there.

 

[VP89]

McTominay has just about no experience as a 6. He will not be starting over Andreas there.

He has established chemistry with the existing starters and has played in deeper roles in virtually all his appearances for us.

 

[Nick7]

I just said Carrick out Fred in from a transfer perspective. Obviously Matic will take Carricks role.

My post was obvious in illustrating that Peirerra has more competition this year than last. Seeing as it was his own decision to go on loan last year, he'd benefit from going in loan this year. He needs regular games not handfuls..

ah fair enough I misinterpreted what you meant. My bad.

 

[Utdstar01]

He could be a genuine world class player. Really promising performances so far this pre season.

 

[Vilev]

If Pereira will start any game is going to be in the same role as Kross/Modric

I never saw any evidence he can be successful in that role. Maybe he can pull it off, it's not like i've seen him play a lot.
But he is severely lacking in terms of smart positioning and in terms of playmaking, especially have a passing range, being cool in tight situations. People at this CM need not only to have great splitting pass to create an opportunity for a threatening attack, but they also need to feel where to pass the ball in ordinary situations. Players like Kross&Modric and anyone who wants o play at this CM role at MU nee to have more than 90% passing accuracy. And need to lose the ball maybe just a couple of times per game.
Pereira always looked like the player who can create chances, can dribble, but who also loses quite a lot of ball and whose passes are frequently too ambitious and not so accurate.

He can learn though of course. Scholes was not exactly the pass master back when he was 20, i remember many people saying his best role is 'shadow striker' because his best quality was to be unexpectedly where a ball was in the box and to score out of nowhere.

 

[sincher]

Scholes was always a very high class passer. I remember thinking so right back in the youth teams, before he even played in our first team.

 

[breakout67]

When Matic is injured, herrera goes there or McTominay who has experience deeper. Otherwise itl be Fred that adjusts. Go and look at where Fred played prior to Foncesca joining. He says himself he was used to playing deeper but is now more accustomed to being an 8 under Paulo Foncesca. In other words he is more of a 6 if need be than Perreira would be, who has never fecking played there.

Maybe you are a week behind or something. Periera has said that his new position is as a no6 and he is staying at United, and he has said this is because of Mourinho showing him a few things that has made him play better there.

There have also been reliable reports that Periera's role in the upcoming season is based on pre-season, where he has played as a no6.

Pereira has almost never played as a no6 until this pre-season. And that's irrelevant because they have obviously decided behind the scenes that this is where his future is at United. A Matic successor.

 

[Seven Seas Sardines]

No way Jose can separate these two...

 

[haram]

No way Jose can separate these two...

Didn't even realise until now we'd have two Brazilians in midfield.

 

[POF]

Pereira definitely has a lot of improvement in him in the deep midfield role (especially decision making) but has the talent. If he wants to be a United player he can't go on loan again. This is a key season for him.

My biggest worry with Fred/Matic/Pogba is the lack of goals. It places a huge reliance on the front 3 who aren't prolific enough on their own. Pereira could add another dimension in midfield. In addition to passing through the lines, he can dribble and add penetration when he gets in advanced areas. He is also a major threat from set pieces.

A number of times last season Jose pushed Matic back to centre back when chasing the game but it completely unbalanced the midfield so wasn't very effective. Pereira could be a fantastic option when looking to go more offensive. I don't expect him to be a regular starter this season but there is a clear role for him in the squad. I hope he takes it.

 

[Dante]

A spot in the first team squad is now his to lose.

I'd expect Matic to take his place once he gets up to speed, but Pereira has to lay down a marker early this season to stay in the reckconing.

Probably the biggest few weeks he'll ever have in a United shirt. If he makes it, he makes it. If he doesn't, he leaves. I've everything crossed for the lad.

 

[kundalini]

Poor performance. Our midfield was awful. Gave the ball away cheaply. Created nothing.

 

[Loublaze]

Poor performance. Our midfield was awful. Gave the ball away cheaply. Created nothing.

He's been Jose'd early as feck. It will happen to Fred too

 

[FootyGirl88]

He was ok, he had a quiet performance. It didn't help that everyone was sitting so deep.

 

[Ban]

He's been Jose'd early as feck. It will happen to Fred too

Oh come on ffs.

 

[Loublaze]

Oh come on ffs.

INB4 it actually happens!

 

[Utdstar01]

Poor performance. Our midfield was awful. Gave the ball away cheaply. Created nothing.

He didn't give the ball away that much tbh. He didn't actually do that much wrong, distributed it where he could but other than Sanchez there wasn't really any attacking threat. Most of the ball was given away by the defense when it was hoofed upfield.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

The difference between Matic playing that position and a relative rookie is how far up the pitch we play and how much of a high line we defend at. Nothing wrong but he's got a bit of learning to do if he wants to play that position. I hope Matic is healthy soon.

 

[settembrini]

533 minutes in pre-season. Only Herrera (522) was close to his game time.

 

[Kidders]

He's had a good tour so it would be unfair to judge him on last nights game, he was'nt that bad actually, it does'nt help when half your team mates are having a nightmare.

 

[TheFlagStaysDown]

The difference between Matic playing that position and a relative rookie is how far up the pitch we play and how much of a high line we defend at. Nothing wrong but he's got a bit of learning to do if he wants to play that position. I hope Matic is healthy soon.

what has it to do with playing a high line? it's up to the front three to start pressing from top to start playing a high line, if it's the back line who pushes forward and the front stays we are narrow in the middle of the pitch and in big trouble, seriously don't know how much it has to do with pereira being deployed as DLP

 

[MuFc_1992]

God when will this idiocy end?

CB is an important position. You need actual CBs to play there because the defending actually matters. It's not something to mess around with because mistakes can cost you matches.

Pep is one manager who puts midfielders in there. Who are the others???

This is the kind of old english mentality that resulted in English teams being severely underwhelming in international and European competitions. People were laughing at Pep for signing Stones but it's clear as daylight that he had the right idea. Also, Look how English national team improved when Southgate favored ball playing defenders over Smalling and Jones. Also, I'm pretty sure that Jose is aware of this issue and signed Lindelof, who's struggling a little bit and he's trying to fix the same issue again with Magurie or Toby( Can't spell his last name). How can you people not understand how big of an advantage it would be if Matic didn't have to drop back to get the ball from CB's and instead one of our CB's drove forward with the ball.

 

[TheFlagStaysDown]

Poor performance. Our midfield was awful. Gave the ball away cheaply. Created nothing.

better than Fred though, hard to blaem any of our midfielders as there was noone to pass the ball to

 

[TheFlagStaysDown]

This is the kind of old english mentality that resulted in English teams being severely underwhelming in international and European competitions. People were laughing at Pep for signing Stones but it's clear as daylight that he had the right idea. Also, Look how English national team improved when Southgate favored ball playing defenders over Smalling and Jones. Also, I'm pretty sure that Jose is aware of this issue and signed Lindelof, who's struggling a little bit and he's trying to fix the same issue again with Magurie or Toby( Can't spell his last name). How can you people not understand how big of an advantage it would be if Matic didn't have to drop back to get the ball from CB's and instead one of our CB's drove forward with the ball.

Nah, England even play three at the back if you didn't notice which can iron out a mistake or two from one of the defenders, if we played with one attacker less our attacking play would be even more disaster, as now we can see to struggle commit any numbers forward. Not to say that England got massively lucky in the tournament, had the easiest route semifinal ever. Even struggled to beat Tunisia only to save it in the injury time with Kane's header, in the group stages. Let's not get into that argument again.

Pep plays with a lot of ball hence he needs someone a bit more decent on the ball, but pressing very high up the pitch with al players we can never achieve this as 95% of times Mourinho's approach is to stroll around the pitch and sit deep. It is not the importance of ball playing CB it is an importance of decent pair of fullbacks and two or three attackers which can be consistently good for us, along with at least 7/10 from Pogba in midfield, then we can play like we palyed start of the last season. Noone cared about our CB when we beat everyone 4:0. Martial and Rashford were on song while Lukaku was putting away his chances. We were palying some fantastic football. Now when it is doom and groom noone is motivated to work hard for the team and without confidence we are fecked but it's not about a better CB ffs

 

[MuFc_1992]

Nah, England even play three at the back if you didn't notice which can iron out a mistake or two from one of the defenders, if we played with one attacker less our attacking play would be even more disaster, as now we can see to struggle commit any numbers forward. Not to say that England got massively lucky in the tournament, had the easiest route semifinal ever. Even struggled to beat Tunisia only to save it in the injury time with Kane's header, in the group stages. Let's not get into that argument again.

Pep plays with a lot of ball hence he needs someone a bit more decent on the ball, but pressing very high up the pitch with al players we can never achieve this as 95% of times Mourinho's approach is to stroll around the pitch and sit deep. It is not the importance of ball playing CB it is an importance of decent pair of fullbacks and two or three attackers which can be consistently good for us, along with at least 7/10 from Pogba in midfield, then we can play like we palyed start of the last season. Noone cared about our CB when we beat everyone 4:0. Martial and Rashford were on song while Lukaku was putting away his chances. We were palying some fantastic football. Now when it is doom and groom noone is motivated to work hard for the team and without confidence we are fecked but it's not about a better CB ffs

But why do you think players like Ramos and Pique are so crucial for their teams? I don't think they are far superior to Smalling when it comes to pure off the ball defending. Plus I'll give you that England playing 3 at the back allows some form of defensive liberty but so will Matic dropping back when our ball playing defender take the ball forward. It will add a bit more unpredictability to our build up play. Also, It's totally ridiculous to assume that ball playing defenders will make defensive mistakes.

Also: look up rumours about what Mourhino said about Smalling's ball playing ability before the Ajax games. It's not an actual quote but that combined with the fact that we signed lindelof and are linked with Alderweireld clearly shows that Jose is trying to fix the issue. You might say that only Pep's system needs such players but actually Transitioning from defense to attack is a key feature of Jose's tactics and It's really wasteful when someone as inept as Smalling is on the ball when you're trying to launch the counter because you cannot chose who gets the ball when defending and by the time smalling gets the ball, finds pogba to play the crossfield ball to Sanchez the opportunity to counter would be gone whereas Alderweireld can immediately launch the said crossfield ball himself.

 

[MuFc_1992]

What a bullshit, I swear that with every new comment about Smalling his ability on the ball is worse. He is not a ball playing CB for sure but he can carry the ball from defence quite well if needed and is not our biggest problem. The CB prolem is overstated, WOuld rather have 100 Smallings over someone as shit in the air as Lindelof, our problem is lack of attacking nous in the final third where all our attacking players lack in quality and instructions and slow transition to attack. It has nothing to do with C. Smalling, we are not a possession based team at all, Smalling also shows regularly great reading of the game with which he starts some attacks, not every CB has to know how to pick 50yard pass but by intercepting at the right moment he can start few promising attacks. There is more problems than our best CB in the club now, of all, the biggest one is Mourinho´s approach

Mourinho discussed about his tactics for the Europa league final was set up because of our defender's lack of ability on the ball. He also revealed that he jokingly told smalling "With your feet, we’re for sure not playing out from the back!’". So, when even Jose who is a defensive manager thinks Smalling's ability on the ball is an issue, I think you need to throw in the towel in this argument. Also, how many champions league winning teams have CB's who are poor on the ball. I know that it is english mentality to praise the brute and slag off the posh ball playing defenders but this kind of argument has no legs to stand on now because even the most sucessful team in the land plays with ball playing CB's.

 

[Adisa]

Think he'll start tomorrow.
Come on Andreas.

 

[Woodzy]

Think he'll start tomorrow.
Come on Andreas.

Same. Most important game of his career to date.

If he impresses then he may we’ll nail down a first team spot.

If he doesn’t, then I would be worried that he becomes bottom of the pecking order as soon as we have our full selection of midfielders available - that includes Fellaini and McTominay.

 

[sherrinford]

Same. Most important game of his career to date.

If he impresses then he may we’ll nail down a first team spot.

If he doesn’t, then I would be worried that he becomes bottom of the pecking order as soon as we have our full selection of midfielders available - that includes Fellaini and McTominay.

I think he’ll start, but could play like a prime Pirlo until Matic is available and will still end up on the bench.

He won’t be end up below either McTominay or Fellaini for the position he is being used in.

 

[VorZakone]

I'm really looking forward to Pereira this season. For years we've witnessed other teams enjoying their technical CM's, it's time for United to unleash Pereira.

 

[Ban]

He'll start, right? Would nr the 1st time he started for us in the league?

 

[flappyjay]

Same. Most important game of his career to date.

If he impresses then he may we’ll nail down a first team spot.

If he doesn’t, then I would be worried that he becomes bottom of the pecking order as soon as we have our full selection of midfielders available - that includes Fellaini and McTominay.

It's his job to make it hard for Matic to walk back into the team after he recovers. At least make himself the first midfielder off the bench at minimum

 

[AgentP]

Pereira is the one I'm really looking forward to this season. I hope he gives Matic a real fight for his place in the team. Fred and Pereira can potentially transform our midfield along with Pogba.

 

[Red_Ramirez]

He'll get his chances, it's up to him now to take them

 

[Yagami]

He'll start, right? Would nr the 1st time he started for us in the league?

Hopefully! & yeah, this would be his 1st start in the league for us and 3rd overall. His other two starts came against Middlesbrough & Ipswich in the league cup in 2015. Scored against Ipswich, and was our only player to score in the penalty shootout against 'brough.