Ahead of his return to Manchester United in the FA Cup this weekend, Fulham midfielder Andreas Pereira talks exclusively to Opta Analyst.
Hard work comes naturally to Andreas Pereira, which is probably just as well given the various challenges he has faced in his career.
It hasn’t been the smoothest path to where he is now – in the hunt for European football and FA Cup glory at Fulham as one of the Premier League’s most creative midfielders, and hoping to go to the 2026 World Cup with Brazil. When Sir Alex Ferguson convinced him to join Manchester United as a teenager way back in 2011, he would have been forgiven for dreaming of even bigger things.
But following almost 11 years on United’s books, it appeared as though his dream of playing in England might be over. He had made his first-team debut in 2014, but after just 36 starts for United and 75 competitive appearances in total, he finally ended his time in Manchester in 2022. Loan spells in Spain, Italy and finally Brazil, where he helped Flamengo to Copa Libertadores glory, appeared to signal that this hot prospect had not fulfilled the vast potential he had shown in his younger years and would have to leave England behind.
But then, following Fulham’s promotion to the Premier League, came a phone call from Marco Silva that rescued the midfielder’s dream.
“I always felt a strong connection here,” Pereira tells Opta Analyst. “I always wanted to come back. It was the first country I’d left my home country for, so it felt like a home, too.
“I always had the confidence I could play here, but it was still a special moment [to receive that phone call] because Marco was the one who believed in me in the beginning and he was the one who gave me the opportunity to come back.”
It’s a chance that Pereira, now 29, is desperate to make the most of.
He has been a key part of a Fulham team who have established themselves as a real force in the top flight, barely entertaining any possibility of relegation in the three seasons since promotion. The plight of the promoted clubs both last season and this proves just how big an achievement Fulham’s is. Only Bernd Leno and Antonee Robinson have played more minutes or made more appearances for Fulham in that time than Pereira.
He has played most of those minutes as the most advanced of the midfield three, although the arrival of Emile Smith Rowe from Arsenal last summer has limited his opportunities there this term. Nevertheless, since Fulham’s promotion, only five players in the whole Premier League have created more chances than him (186).
The list of those five players – Bruno Fernandes, Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah – is a who’s who of the Premier League’s best creators. Pereira showed exactly what he can do with his latest assist in the win at Wolves in midweek, a neat through ball for Ryan Sessegnon’s opening goal inside the first minute of the game.
“I enjoy creating opportunities for my teammates,” Pereira says. “It’s what I enjoy most on the pitch.
“I don’t really take notice of the numbers, but I always want to be in that kind of bracket of players. I don’t like to compare myself, but I want to be up there with the best. I always watch videos of players like Bruno and De Bruyne, to try and simulate what they are doing.
“I played with Bruno for a while and I always look at De Bruyne’s movement, how he gets into space to create chances, so I always watch these kinds of video clips.”
If there were to be a criticism of Pereira, it would probably be that he tries to pull off difficult passes too often, but presumably that isn’t something Silva wants to curb too much for fear of dampening his overall impact on games.
Much of Pereira’s most significant creative output, however, comes via his wicked delivery at set-pieces.
Dead balls are a part of the game that haven’t always been the most celebrated or considered the most glamorous, and the Brazilian has his forward-thinking father, Marcos – a former professional footballer himself – to thank for his set-piece excellence.
“It’s something that started for me a while ago,” Pereira says. “My father was always on me, saying with the technique I had I should take better corners, take better free-kicks, so I started to practise a lot.”
Fulham are reaping the benefits. Pereira is top of the pile in the Premier League for a host of different creative set-piece metrics. Since he joined Fulham, he has created more chances from corners (90) and more chances from all dead-ball situations (104) than any other Premier League player. He is also top for the number of his corners that have been converted into goals with the first touch following his delivery (nine), and is second only to Saka (20) for the total number of goals his teammates have scored following his corners (18).
“Here at Fulham, Marco put me on corners straight away, and we always practise them,” Pereira says. “We are dialled in to make them work. And we also have lots of fantastic people going to head the ball, which makes my job easier.”
Set-piece coaches are very much in vogue, but Fulham, who rank fifth in the Premier League for goals from corners since the start of 2022-23, make do without one. Pereira makes creating chances from them sound far easier than the image of meticulous set-piece planning that we often see projected in the Premier League these days.
“There’s no designated set-piece coach,” says Pereira. “There’s someone that helps – an analyst who I speak to about where it’s possible to put the ball, where it’s easier to put the ball, and we work out the best options – but Marco is still in charge. He oversees everything and makes the decisions.
“We have certain areas that I know can be dangerous, but normally I speak to one player who I know is going to run into a certain area and I try to put it on his head.”
While most clubs have a preference for inswinging corners and a few lean towards outswingers, switching between left- and right-footers depending on which side of the pitch the corner is on, Fulham have an almost perfectly equal split between the two. They are closer to 50%-50% in this regard than any other ever-present team since they were promoted, and that’s simply because Pereira takes their corners on both sides, so useful is his delivery.
There’s much more to the modern game for a creative midfielder than chance creation, though, and Pereira’s work ethic has helped him succeed in that regard. He had it made clear early on at United precisely what was required from him out of possession.
“Pressing is something that I learned when I came to England,” he says. “I was playing in the PSV [Eindhoven] youth academy and I didn’t really do a lot of pressing there, but when I went to United, I had a coach called Warren Joyce, who showed me videos of Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez and how they ran after the ball.
“He helped me recognise I had to simulate that type of hunger, to be the kind of player who can initiate a press. And you saw how many goals they scored straight away from winning the ball high up the pitch.
“I had the technical ability, so I thought it would be a good idea to try to put that into my game. From that moment on I started to run more.”
Since moving to Fulham, Pereira ranks among the top 20 players in the Premier League for pressures, pressures in the middle third of the pitch, pressures in the final third of the pitch, pressures resulting in a turnover, pressures in the final third resulting in a turnover, and distance covered while pressing. His tactical understanding and ability to lead a press is something Silva has spoken about publicly, and when he doesn’t play, it is sometimes apparent that Fulham are less effective with their press.
Silva obsesses over every little detail when his team plays – “a perfectionist”, as Pereira puts it – and clearly likes the Brazilian in part for his ability to carry out his instructions without the ball, but he also wants his attackers to play with some freedom. He has done an exceptional job, and has Fulham on course for one of their greatest ever seasons, ninth in the Premier League and just four points off fifth place.
The Opta supercomputer gives them a 3.2% chance of finishing in the top five which, as things stand, is likely to be enough for Champions League qualification.
“3.2%? So, there is a chance!” says Pereira. “We know Champions League [qualification] would be difficult, but we dream of a European spot, we want to push for that. We just push game to game, but it’s definitely in the back of our minds, for sure.”
More immediately, Fulham face the small matter of a trip to United in the FA Cup fifth round this weekend, which means a return to his former club for Pereira.
“It’s always a special feeling to go back to Old Trafford, where I called home for a lot of years,” he says. “It’s always a special game for me.”
Does he feel he has something to prove there?
“I don’t think I got my full chance to play and show my quality when I was there. Fulham gave me that opportunity, they did everything for me, and I want to do everything for them. So, whenever I play at Old Trafford, I want to show that United made a mistake.”
It’s a bold statement, particularly given Fulham have such a terrible record against the current FA Cup holders. Despite their current malaise, United have still managed to do the league double over Fulham this season, recording 1-0 wins in August and January.
But there still may never be a better time to face United, who have lost 13 games in all competitions this season and are struggling terribly with injuries at the moment, a situation that wasn’t helped by Patrick Dorgu’s red card against Ipswich in midweek and subsequent three-match ban. What’s more, Fulham arguably didn’t deserve to lose either meeting with United and will take confidence from those games despite losing both.
With so many big teams already out of the FA Cup this season, a door has been opened to someone like Fulham springing an upset. It would be the club’s first major trophy, but why shouldn’t this be the year they finally end their wait?
“We think about going far in the FA Cup,” Pereira says. “We know it’s going to be difficult, but it’s definitely something we dream of.”
This current crop is a hugely exciting Fulham team that has fans wondering if they can do something really special this season. It would be a truly historic achievement, but one that Pereira has helped make possible.
If they beat United on Sunday, those dreams will move that bit closer to reality.
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