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Marco Silva held extended one-on-one talks with 27-year-old Fulham player in build-up to Tottenham match
Fulham manager Marco Silva held extended talks with midfielder Andreas Pereira ahead of their match against Tottenham Hotspur.
A report from The Athletic has provided more details on the build-up and aftermath of a disappointing result at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Fulham fans would have been all too aware of their issues in front of goal going into a match with the in-form team in the league.
Unfortunately, Raul Jimenez and Harry Wilson couldn’t end their scoring droughts despite having brilliant chances in the second half.
Calvin Bassey was the man who made headlines for all the wrong reasons, although he was far from the only player who didn’t have his best game.
Aleksandar Mitrovic’s absence is clearly still being felt and no one appears to be missing him more than Andreas Pereira.
The Brazilian was superb in his first season at the club but has failed to hit those heights this year.
Silva brought Pereira off at half-time and replaced him with Alex Iwobi after having talks with the Brazilian ahead of the game.
After recording four goals and six assists last season, he’s only managed two contributions in his first nine games, albeit off the back of a serious injury picked up in May.
Silva holds extended talks with Pereira
The report from The Athletic suggests that Silva took Pereira aside for an extended analysis meeting last week.
Pereira’s position on the pitch hasn’t changed this season, but the way he needs to play has to be adapted following Mitrovic’s sale.
The biggest difference so far this year has been how often Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno plays long balls down the centre of the pitch.
While Mitrovic was in the team, there was a good chance he would either win a header or bring the ball down and lay it off to Pereira.
Both Raul Jimenez and Carlos Vinicius have the frames to do this job but are nowhere near as effective as the Serbian.
It has meant Fulham attempting to advance the ball through the defenders more often this year which has forced Pereira to drop deep to influence the game.
This has occasionally created too big of a gap between him and Fulham’s front three, or if the ball is played down the wings, he’s always the spare man.
Silva and Pereira holding talks to work out what’s going wrong is encouraging, but it might be time to rest him against Brighton and hand Iwobi a start in that role.
He’s only come off the bench once in his Fulham career and although it’s unlikely to be a role he wants to play, something needs to change if the Whites are going to improve their output in front of goal.
