Why Andreas Pereira Must Be Given a Chance by Manchester Utd Boss Louis van Gaal

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is under pressure, as his hard-to-watch side has struggled its way through most games. But in Andrea Pereira, he possesses a potential difference-maker who should be getting more game time.

One of the quirks of attending matches at Old Trafford of late has been that watching Pereira in the warm-up is generally more entertaining than the actual match.

When the substitutes are engaged in their passing drills, the Belgian-born Brazil youth international tends to mix things up, demonstrating his apparently effortless ability to trap the ball with flair, flicking it up off the outside of his boot, or allowing the ball to travel behind him before sweeping his leg around to stop it in its tracks.

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Of course, being good at freestyle-influenced tricks does not warrant inclusion in a starting XI, otherwise YouTube sensations around the globe would be lining up for lucrative contracts at Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

However, there is much more to Pereira than trickery. He has made two starts for United this season, both in the Capital One Cup; in the first, against Ipswich Town, he showed just how deadly he can be from set pieces, scoring United's only goal from a direct free-kick this season.

The second, against Middlesbrough, saw him and the rest of the United team struggle to make an impact; though, it was a team with plenty of changes from Van Gaal's regular XI—Sergio Romero starting was emblematic of that.

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Other than that, most of Pereira's involvement this season has come in the form of brief cameos. He was thrown into the game against Wolfsburg at home at the point at which the momentum had swung in the away team's favour, and was not able to ease much of the pressure on United's back four.

He played a significant chunk of the debacle against Bournemouth when injuries had stripped Van Gaal's squad down to its bare bones. His individual ability did not make the killer impact in that game, but his three dribbles and nine crosses into the box, per WhoScored.com, at least gave United some sort of impetus. 

So, in his brief cameos, Pereira has not been able to definitively prove he is an undroppable player who should without any doubt be given a more extended run in the first team.

And yet, he should be. Those cameos have been too brief and too infrequent to make a definitive judgement. He has very rarely looked overawed to be part of United's senior team—Wolfsburg is perhaps the only exception, and young players are entitled to that sort of performance from time to time.

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And Van Gaal most certainly should be trying something different. The team has scored 28 goals in the league this season—the fewest of any side in the top eight of the table. They have not scored a first half goal at Old Trafford since September. They have played out seven 0-0 draws this season, six at Old Trafford.

There is an easy fit for Pereira in Van Gaal's current lineup. Indeed, he could comfortably play in any of the three positions behind the centre-forward, coming off either flank or playing at No. 10.

He could be perhaps even more effective if Van Gaal finally threw caution to the wind and switched his formation to a 4-3-3. A front three of, say, Anthony Martial, Memphis Depay and Pereira would contain the kind of youthful exuberance and flair that Old Trafford has been so badly lacking this season.

Juan Mata and Wayne Rooney may have something to say about their exclusion from that system, but ultimately their contributions this season have been insufficient to warrant their automatic starting places. Indeed, Mata seems to have lost his, having been left out of the games against Liverpool and Southampton.

Rooney may have hit a purple patch of goalscoring form of late, but was once again almost entirely ineffective against Southampton. Van Gaal should be rotating his captain to preserve his effectiveness.

Pereira has played a lot of under-21 football this season, and watching those games makes it obvious he has outgrown that level. Just as James Wilson and Adnan Januzaj needed either senior game time or a loan, so does Pereira.

In the case of all three, given how poor United's attack has been when based around its more senior players, the United first team could hardly have been made much worse by their inclusion.

There is a clear need to do something different at the moment. Watching United trying to attack at the moment is like watching a person trying to get through a closed door by repeatedly running into it, rather than taking advantage of the more traditional open-it-first approach.

Of course, there may be obstacles to Pereira's inclusion that are outside of his absolute level of ability. Van Gaal's history with creative Brazilian footballers is one of the great knocks against him.

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His time at Barcelona saw Brazilian striker Giovanni say, per the Mirror "Van Gaal is the Hitler of the Brazilian players. He is arrogant, proud and has a problem. He is sick, crazy."

After leaving the club last summer, Rafael Da Silva said to Globo Esporte (h/t Sky Sports), "I know this history that he doesn’t like Brazilian [players], but I can't say: 'Oh, he doesn’t like Brazilians'. "I know that he didn’t like me, but if that’s because I'm Brazilian, I don't know." 

He fell out with Rivaldo at Barcelona also. Jonathan Liew, who compiled a detailed dossier on Van Gaal for the Telegraph when Van Gaal was appointed at United, wrote: 

"

The Dutch-ification of Barcelona was never going to pass without comment. Van Gaal quickly found himself out of favour among large parts of the squad; in particular the three Brazilian players Sonny Anderson, Giovanni and Rivaldo, who nicknamed him "Hitler".

By Van Gaal’s final season of his first spell, only Rivaldo remained. But the world player of the year was growing increasingly frustrated at being marooned on the left, and would often wander out of position. The training ground and the Nou Camp alike would reverberate to the sound of van Gaal screaming: "Rivaldo! Listen! Do as I tell you!"

"

Angel Di Maria was another creative South American player who was unable to jell with Van Gaal, telling ESPN Radio (h/t Sky Sports):

"

It is difficult to adapt to Van Gaal because he points to his philosophy. Everyone takes what he wants and does.

I started very well with him and then had a couple of clashes. There came a time when I did not have a good relationship with Van Gaal and that influences much in a player's mind.

"

Perhaps the clue to Pereira's lack of involvement comes from those creative and improvisational warm-ups. Although this is, of course, speculative, perhaps Van Gaal does not trust the youngster to execute his system according to his instructions.

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At the moment, that would seem like a positive for most of United's fans. Watching players struggle to execute Van Gaal's instructions has been an entirely unedifying spectacle for most of this season. Pereira should be given the chance to try to liven things up a bit.

After all, in an attacking sense, it can hardly get much worse.