I agree. With Pereira on his game we surely would have won. But I can’t help comparing him to Maitland-Niles and Gallagher. The latter two provide the speed and drive to Albion’s play having been schooled at Arsenal and Chelsea. Pereira at the moment is a study in hesitancy giving the opponent’s defence time to regroup. I lost count of the number of times crosses by him or by Furlong were blocked because the move took far too long to develop.
But the main feeling is one of regret that this team has been left with far too much to do and won’t be seen together after the next twelve matches. We can dream about retaining Okay and Diagne but it’s not going to happen. Surely the former’s stellar performances are being noted by club’s with deep pockets and he won’t be short of lucrative possibilities come May.
Now we have to beat Newcastle but in doing so I think we shall be helping Fulham more than ourselves. Having said that I think we can at least look forward to being competitive in our remaining matches. We have gone from being hopelessly out of our depths to feeling that on a good day we could get something from anyone, particularly if Pereira can sharpen up!