We don't defend as a team. Putting him in Matic's position will be a disaster. He can't do it alone.
We have seen so less of him, I am not even sure where his best game could be.
The Pereira issue is really confusing.
This is a player that came up up the ranks at United as an offensive midfielder, often playing on the wing. He was then farmed out on loan to La Liga for the two last seasons, where (at least for Valencia, Granada I dont really know) he also mainly was playing on the wing. Some games more like a #10. He struggled to claim a starting place for Valencia in either positions. But did OK.
But he never really played as a DM, and especially not as a more isolated lone #6.
Coming back to United this year, Mourinho suddenly played him as a #6 during the pre-season and even in the start of the season with that infamous Brighton-game to cup it off.
Playing as a #6 for one of the biggest clubs in the world in the toughest league in the world is not a cakewalk. Its arguably the most difficult position to play and its extremely seldom that a young player makes that position his own if he is not an extraordinary player. You dont put just anyone in there for United. Especially not someone that struggled to make it at RW at Valencia.
So one asks oneself why Mourinho did this. And why he completely has frozen Pereira out after that Brighton-game.
If I would be a Mourinho-hater or a conspiracy-theorist I could come up with some reasons as to why this even happened in the first place. But I am not, so I will stop at saying that this decision on how to handle Pereira does not reflect very well at Mourinho. At all.
And I am very unsure on Pereira being good enough for United. He is obviously not even close to compete for a DM position, I so dont get that....? But if you keep him in the squad he should be given a fair chance and not thrown to the wolves like this and then frozen out.
Of course I dont know if something has happened behind the scenes, but this is seriously one of the more confusing things with this season. And there is competition.