We absolutely have a penchant for industrious players. During Fergie's days, Welbeck was seen as our defensive winger. Now, Lingard is seen as our defensive #10. In 2013, we relied on Carrick (who was pretty amazing that year). Luckily we had RVP who was not only a great goal scorer, but just great technical forward. Rooney, despite his flaws, was still capable of being a match winner and creating for others that season.
Right now, we're seriously having to carry poorly technical players and are extremely reliant on Pogba to create. The problem comes from the fact that if you play him as an 8 (furthest forward in a 3 man midfield), we now lack 2 midfielders who can dissuade the opposition from pressing, who can give the ball to Pogba in dangerous positions, and can distribute the ball to our attackers in great positions.
Pereira has never been a great creative player even at youth level. He was a tidy player, who can spray passes, had steel, can find space for himself to shoot, had great set piece ability, even at times showed magic with flicks, but he wasn't on the same level of vision that Gomes and Pogba had.
It's not hindsight at all. A lot of the players outperformed Pereira last season. Rothwell, Pearson, Wilson, Janko, Charni, etc... Obviously Pereira has more technical ability and a higher potential than the names listed, but playing behind the striker he wasn't creative enough, and didn't cause the defenses all that much trouble. Whenever he had the ball in the final third, he would usually only look to create an opening for himself. The attack as a whole was awful for the reserve team so it might be harsh on him, but it would have been worse if not for the finishing of Wilson and the drive of Rothwell.
This is all based on last season which I watched every one of his matches. 99corrigan also makes numerous videos of his performances even when other players outperformed him. No one is writing him off here. He's still really young and can obviously develop into a fantastic player. But you can't tell me Pogba at the same age wasn't putting in better performances or showing more than him. I can't even think of one performance at the u18 or u21 level (this past season) where Pereira put in a performance as good as Pogba did in the 2nd leg of the FA Youth Cup final.
And again, I was one of the people who also thought Januzaj was ready for the first team. I just wasn't on the forum at the time.
Although I think Pereira will not end up playing behind the striker and instead deeper, the comparison wasn't about who was the better midfielder (midfield 2). The comparison was in terms of consistency. I think Pogba's best bits of play were a level above Pereira's.
If you want to compare him to another attacking midfielder, then you can compare him to Januzaj although that would be unfair on him.
I did go on to praise him for that following season. He was a good classy midfielder. This is coming from someone who did also think more highly of Tom Thorpe than Michael Keane, James Wilson's finishing above Rashford, and still maintain Januzaj was the better performing player just behind Ravel and Gomes, but ahead of players like Pogba (who was inconsistent, but had huge highs).
Ole should have a look at Gomes. As Butt said, Gomes is not only an attacker, but also someone incredibly good at keeping possession and helping out his teammates bring the ball out from the back. My only criticism of Gomes has always been his passiveness at times considering his talent, but even in those matches where I thought that, Gomes would always take responsibility and start dictating play from deeper positions when United were struggling to bring the ball out. Gomes isn't some industrious player when played as an attacker, but if you give him the deeper role from the start, he will do the job required. He is more disciplined than Pogba in this area.
Unlike Januzaj, who I could never picture as a deeper midfielder, Gomes can definitely do that job just like Pogba has that ability. If you want Pogba to be in more dangerous positions, play Gomes next to him so that he can feed Pogba and help bring the ball out. He is much better than Pereira at creating from deep, and he is much better at freeing himself up from opponent pressure because opponents quickly recognize his low center of gravity, technical superiority, and fainting ability.
If there is one concern about Gomes playing deep is that he needs to be more disciplined in regards to going down. He usually wins fouls, but in the rare times where that doesn't happen, the team will nick the ball from him and go on an attacking run. That's an adjustment period he needs to undergo as going to ground as a #10 isn't as detrimental as a pivot midfielder.
