When West Brom completed the signing of Matheus Pereira it was seen as something of a coup for an EFL Championship side. The Brazilian had previously plied his trade in Portugal and the Bundesliga, where he had performed solidly. Furthermore, at the time the Baggies negotiated an obligation to buy in the case of promotion to the Premier League. In hindsight, this seems a very wise decision, as before football was suspended West Brom were six points clear of Fulham in third, with Pereira having a key role in their rise and success. The price of this potential transfer is £8.25m; which after his performances this season seems like a relative bargain.
Thus far the 24-year-old has made 33 appearances, including four off the bench. In terms of attacking output, there has been six goals and 12 assists, including a hat-trick versus Swansea City at home in December. Head Coach Slaven Bilić has predominantly played Pereira as a 10, although he is proficient as a right-winger, cutting inside onto his favoured left foot.
In this tactical analysis in the form of a scout report, we’ll look at Pereira’s role in Bilić’s tactics and conduct analysis on various aspects of his game.
Role in West Brom’s tactics
Bilić is insistent on retaining possession of the ball and methodically building from deep. As aforementioned Pereira is mainly deployed centrally behind the striker. In this position, his main responsibility is to be the link between the attacking quartet and those in deeper positions who are searching for incisive passes into the front-four. We can see this below where Pereira has dropped deeper and pulled a QPR player with him, before flicking a pass around the corner to Jake Livermore acting as the third man here to capitalize on the space left by the QPR player drawn in.
The two full-backs are attack-minded and advance high, this occupation of the wide channels allows the wingers to drift inside to the half-spaces for more feasible interchanges between the attacking four. Situating themselves between the lines and in these areas of the field they can have better orientation upon receiving possession, therefore creating further offensive danger.
A common movement for Pereira is to receive possession centrally, or mainly on the right-wing, before neatly manoeuvring for a switch pass to an overlapping full-back, particularly to the ball-far full-back who has likely found space and time due to defence initially shuffling across. Such a scenario is visible below. Pereira has collected possession on the right flank, in space, and because his wider positioning has emptied the 10 zone he can dribble inside and switch play to the left-full-back on the underloaded side where there is a potential crossing opportunity.
