Following the departure of Sean Dyche, Nottingham Forest have entrusted Vitor Pereira with the task of steering the struggling side away from relegation.
The 57-year-old Portuguese, who has an itinerant coaching career, becomes the club’s fourth manager of the season, after agreeing an 18-month contract to take charge of a club who lie 17th in the Premier League, three points above the drop zone, after two wins from their last 10 matches.
In this article, we take a closer look at Pereira and ask what we can expect from a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) perspective.
CAREER SO FAR
Vitor Pereira plied his trade as a midfielder in the Portuguese non-league, before retiring at the age of 28.
He got his first coaching job working with local team Padroense and was then appointed head coach of third-tier club Sanjoanense in the 2004/05 season, whom he guided to a fifth-place finish.
Two seasons at hometown club SC Espinho, and a further two at second-division side Santa Clara, with whom he narrowly missed out on promotion to the top flight, followed before he returned to Porto’s youth academy, where he had spent previous spells between jobs.
His career picked up under the tutelage of Andre Villas-Boas, who appointed him assistant manager. When Villas-Boas moved to Chelsea, Pereira became Porto’s head coach and guided the club to successive Primeira Liga titles, losing just one game in his opening campaign and going undefeated in the second.
Pereira had designs on coming to the Premier League but missed out on the Everton job to Roberto Martinez. After a brief spell at Al Ahli in the Saudi Pro League, he moved to Greece in January 2015 and guided Olympiacos to the double.
Two ill-fated spells at Fenerbahce followed, as well as a doomed stint at 1860 Munich, who he could not spare from relegation.
He fared better in China, where he succeeded Villas-Boas again at Shanghai SPG and led them to their first-ever title victory. He came close to joining Everton in early 2022, only for the move to be blocked as tensions escalated on Merseyside between irate fans and the club’s owner, Farhad Moshiri, who moved to appease the angry hordes by opting for Frank Lampard.
The following month, Pereira landed at Corinthians but left the Brazilian club later that year citing personal issues. His appointment as the head coach of Flamengo three months later sparked outrage among Corinthians die-hards.
Flamengo were a nearly team under Pereira, losing the semi-finals of the Club World Cup to Al Hilal and bowing out of the Recopa Sudamericana on penalties. After ending his Brazilian adventure, he moved on to Al Shabab in February 2024. In a striking comparison to Forest, Al Shabab were only four points above the relegation zone when Pereira took over, and he guided them to the safety of eighth place.
Pereira finally got his chance to experience the Premier League when he replaced Gary O’Neil as head coach of a Wolverhampton Wanderers side lying in 19th place with just nine points from 16 matches, and he made an instant impact, masterminding a debut 3-0 win over Leicester City, closely followed by a 2-0 victory over Manchester United. After mixed results, there were eight defeats in 12 matches through December and January, but the Wolves ownership persevered and results started to come.
Six consecutive wins through March and April confirmed Wolves’ survival, and Pereira endeared himself further with the locals by joining them down the pub to celebrate their reversal of fortunes.
This season proved less successful, however, and a summer firesale of key players such as Matheus Cunha (£8.1m), Rayan Ait Nouri (£5.7m) and Nelson Semedo proved too damaging. Despite signing a new deal in September, Pereira was sacked in November with Wolves lying rock bottom with only two points.
PEREIRA’S APPOINTMENT
“I’m very proud. It’s an honour for me to be part of this family – a good team with a great spirit – but now it’s time to work.
“We have very good conditions to work in, and the players have lots of talent. We have very good players. Now is the time to start building the identity that I want.
“For a manager, it’s important that the players and staff buy into both the idea and the person – the idea because of the games we have coming up, and the person because we are human beings and mistakes can happen. It’s important to accept the values and believe in the leader.” – Vitor Pereira
Vitor Pereira is a vastly experienced coach, and he has been brought in with one priority: to stay up. When he achieved this with Wolves, he had more time on his side. An initial pair of victories was followed by two months of mixed results and eight defeats in 12 matches. The fear is, if that happens at Forest, owner Angelos Marinakis, who is not known for his patience and understanding, may well pull the trigger for the fourth time this season.
While preserving Premier League status is a non-negotiable, Pereira will also be expected to reach the latter stages of the Europa League. Marinakis is as ambitious as they come and will not deem winning a European trophy, and therefore qualifying for next year’s Champions League, a distant pipe dream.
“We want to do well in both competitions [Europa League and Premier League]. The most important thing is to believe we can win the next game.” – Vitor Pereira on joining Nottingham Forest
“When you’re playing three games a week, everyone has to be ready and understand what we ask, even if they start on the bench. We can’t play every match with the same starting XI – it’s impossible to maintain the same intensity and energy.” – Vitor Pereira on rotation
STRONG MAN MANAGEMENT
What Pereira brought to Wolves that was missing under Gary O’Neil was a spirit of togetherness and a simplification of tactics. The impression was that Wolves’ players had been confused by an overload of information under O’Neil, whereas when Periera came in, the instructions became more straightforward, perhaps helped by his ability to communicate with the large Portuguese-speaking contingent on the playing staff.
Pereira brought an air of authority, clarity and openness and was able to foster a sense of camaraderie in the team. This was highlighted by his mantra of “first the points, then the pints”, as he celebrated wins in the pubs of Wolverhampton to the delight of the players, staff and fans.
There are similarities with the current situation at Forest, where his predecessor Dyche was not beloved by his players. Dyche’s aloof demeanour was a huge contrast to Nuno Espirito Santo, who courted the admiration of most of his players, many of whom looked upon him as a father figure.
Training under Dyche was hard; players were not allowed to wear anything in training that they would not be permitted to wear during matches, such as hats, and many reportedly complained that the work was too intense, with day after day of “running, running, running”.
Pereira will be a breath of fresh air from that military regimen. And his outlook may well take the pressure off an embattled group who, in terms of pure quality, are a huge upgrade to what Pereira has been used to.
The Portuguese head coach was able to bring the best out of the rare gems at his disposal last season. He was able to coax the very best out of the mercurial Cunha, who ranked first among all forwards for shots taken (110) and chances created (57) in a superb individual campaign.
This was no mean feat considering Cunha’s self-destructive streak, which was in evidence when he received a mindless red card for losing his head in the last seconds of an FA Cup match last March. With a crucial run of league fixtures looming, Pereira’s man-management skills came to the fore. Not only did Cunha’s dismissal trigger the six-match winning sequence that kept Wolves up, but Cunha himself returned to deliver a standout campaign. In other words, his players responded to him, with or without their star performer.
Pereira proved to be a galvanising force in his first season at Wolves, but it should be noted that he too can be a volatile and combustible figure. When things get fraught, he has been known to fly off the handle, which could make his relationship with Marinakis explosive and perhaps even short-lived.
PREFERRED TACTICS AND PLAYING STYLE
As well as sharing the same nationality and propensity to be a unifying force as Nuno, Pereira is also an advocate of the 3-4-2-1 formation, a system used by most Portuguese sides.
It is one Nuno deployed to great effect when he was at Wolves, and which Pereira used to save the club from the drop last season. Indeed, while O’Neil had used multiple formations during his time at Molineux, Pereira mostly stuck with the 3-4-2-1 (see image below) which best suited his players and refused to tinker with it.
In a system the players understood, Wolves demonstrated a dramatic defensive improvement. A side that had been conceding at a rate of 2.5 goals-per-match had halved that figure to 1.3 by the time they had confirmed their salvation in April 2025. There was also an improvement in defending set-pieces. Under O’Neil, Wolves conceded a non-penalty set-piece goal a game, while under Pereira, that figure shrank to 0.3 non-penalty set-piece goals a game.
| 2024/25 (per match) | O’Neil | Pereira |
|---|---|---|
| Shots conceded | 14.6 | 10.9 |
| Shots on target conceded | 5.7 | 3.7 |
| Expected goals conceded (xGC) | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Goals conceded | 2.5 | 1.4 |
In addition to defensive improvements, Pereira brought more self-assurance into Wolves’ approach play in possession. A more patient approach meant they held on to the ball for longer, executed short, sharp passes and pinned their opponents back inside their defensive third more often. Could this bring the best out of the ballers like Morgan Gibbs White (£7.3m), Callum Hudson Odoi (£5.7m) and the lesser-spotted Dan Ndoye (£5.5m)?
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR FPL?
Under Nuno Espirito Santo last season, Nottingham Forest defenders were must-haves. It was not uncommon to see managers doubling up on Forest defenders, while Matz Sels (£4.6m) also proved a popular keeper, given his 13 clean sheets and 150 points.
There is no reason why Pereira cannot again improve his new side’s backline. Especially as it was already showing green shoots of recovery under Dyche, following the defensive disasterclass that was Ange-ball. Forest have conceded 37 goals this season, which is fewer than six teams and only one more than Man Utd, Newcastle and Spurs.
This could make Forest’s defenders appealing.
In midfield, Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson (£5.4m) are the obvious contenders for FPL managers to keep an eye on, largely because they have been performing well despite their team’s results.
Gibbs White has created more chances, 13, than all but one midfielder in the last four Gameweeks, while only one midfielder has had more big chances than his five since Gameweek 19.
Anderson has been a defensive contribution (DefCon) monster this season – no player has amassed more than his 38 DefCon points this season – so it is difficult to imagine that he can improve on this output. Anderson is already the eighth-highest scoring midfielder in the game, but if Pereira can encourage more attacking output from the 5.9% owned midfielder, he could prove an interesting differential.
James McAtee (£5.0m) could also benefit from Pereira’s arrival. The former Manchester City midfielder’s career has flatlined since he joined Forest, but his passing game could suit Pereira’s eye. McAtee is a good playmaker and Pereira could view him as the pathway to reviving the Tricky Trees’ attack.
Up front, there is nothing to see at present, unless Chris Wood (£7.2m) makes a miraculous recovery or Pereira can somehow get a tune out of Lorenzo Lucca (£5.5m) or Igor Jesus (£5.8m). With 25 goals scored, Forest have the second-worst attack in the division, and, at any rate, in terms of forwards, FPL managers are already spoilt for choice.
To begin with then, the best advice is to take a watching brief, particularly as Forest have the best fixtures of any team from Gameweek 30-34, according to the Season Ticker.
By this time, we should have an idea of how Pereira’s team is playing and whether the defenders, and possibly midfielders mentioned above, are worth a punt.
