Andreas Pereira has been waiting in the wings for his chance at Manchester United for a while now, having gone out on loan to La Liga clubs Granada and Valencia in the past two seasons, respectively.
At one point, it was unlikely that he would ever make the grade at the club, but his impressive performances in pre-season in the absence of Nemanja Matić convinced José Mourinho to start Pereira in Uniteds first league game of the season against Leicester City.
It is worth noting that the Brazilian has spent the majority of his career as an attacking midfielder, either centrally or on the flanks.
Therefore, he is new to the role of the deepest midfielder in a 4-3-3 formation.
Nevertheless, it is in this position that the Portuguese head coach sees Pereira thriving, and his performances in pre-season as well as against Leicester suggest that the United boss may have got this call correct.
This tactical analysis, in the form of Andreas Pereiras scout report, will look at how the 22-year-old midfielder fits into José Mourinhos tactics at Manchester United.
Andreas Pereira Positional Intelligence
Perhaps the most important tactical aspect for the pivot in a 4-3-3 formation is his positional intelligence.
The player tasked with playing this role must have superb spatial awareness, as their position on the field potentially affects that of every other outfield player.
Despite this being his first season playing in such a role, Pereira was superb positionally, varying his whereabouts on the pitch in accordance with the phase of play and the location of the ball.
His heat map and touch map from the game, provided below, will illustrate this further:
Andreas Pereira Heat Map Vs Leicester City
Andreas Pereira Touches Map Vs Leicester City
Pereira usually dropped in between, or rather, just in front of Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelöf, Uniteds centre-backs, which allowed them to move wider and thus also allowed the full-backs to get further up the pitch.
This was not rigid though; the B
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