Following the departure of Gary O’Neil, Wolverhampton Wanderers have wasted little time in recruiting a new head coach. Vitor Pereira represents an interesting choice by the Midlands club.
The 56-year-old Portuguese, who has an itinerant coaching career, signed an 18-month contract after leaving Saudi Pro Club Al-Shabab, where his side had won seven of their opening 12 matches of the season.
In this article, we take a closer look at Pereira and ask what we can expect from a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) perspective.
VITOR PEREIRA: THE HISTORY
Vitor Pereira had a low-key playing career, where he 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 got the top job. He hit the ground running, guiding 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, whom 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. While there he turned down an approach from Everton but came close to joining them 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 partly appeased the angry hordes by opting for Frank Lampard.
The following month, Pereira landed in Brazil at Corinthians but left the club later that year citing personal issues. When he was appointed head coach of Flamengo not three months later there was outrage among Corinthians fans.
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 this year.
Graphic courtesy of Transfermarkt
VITOR PEREIRA: PLAYING STYLE/TACTICS
Vitor Pereira is a tactically flexible coach who adapts to the quality of players at his disposal.
At Porto, he mainly used a 4-3-3 formation. The system was defensively sound, with the Portuguese giants conceding just 33 goals across 60 league matches during his tenure.
“Compared to Andre [Villas-Boas], he probably had more defensive quality as a coach. That’s where he was really strong, whereas Andre was a bit more of a risk-taker in terms of ‘Let’s attack and see what happens’, so the game could be more open. So, it was a good mix for us to have someone who developed the offensive side of our game and then someone who developed the defensive side, and that’s probably why we ended up winning that year because the team was more complete.” – Mads Davidsen, Shanghai SPG’s sporting director
However, in his most recent post, Pereira preferred to work with a back three, either in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3.
Under his management, Al-Shabab became much harder to beat, with a greater emphasis on organisation throughout the team.
Indeed, despite being a mid-table side in the Saudi Pro League, Al-Shabab have conceded just 11 goals in 13 games so far this season, including five clean sheets.
Discussing his approach in Friday’s presser, Pereira said:
“Before I accepted the job, me and my staff studied the team. We need to improve some aspects of the game, but we have good players. With confidence, a player can change everything. In this moment, my idea is to create a tactical identity. In our first training, we started to work for this identity, this game module. With a very clear communication, we begin the steps to increase this idea and make players comfortable in the roles.
“It’s a responsibility, but it’s a good responsibility. Now it’s time to give confidence to them, to guide them like a GPS… a tactical GPS. To put them in the same direction, to connect them. And to play with courage. This is what I want. Tactical quality, technical quality, because I like my teams to play good football, but with tactical organisation and courage to play our game.
“What I want is after some time, you will see Wolves playing the game of Wolves. When you see Wolves playing, you see a style of play, an intention of play.” – Vitor Pereira
VITOR PEREIRA: THE FPL PROSPECTS
Wolves have not had trouble scoring goals. They lie joint-eighth in the scorers’ charts alongside Bournemouth, Fulham and Aston Villa with 24 goals. The likes of Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.8m), Matheus Cunha (£7.1m) and Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.7m) have been desirable attacking assets until very recently.
The Old Gold’s chief problem has been keeping the old goals out of the net. The 40 they have shipped so far is by some distance the worst record in the division. However, their expected goals conceded (xGC) of 27.59 indicates that they should have only the sixth-worst defensive record (see below). This is something Pereira should be able to address quite quickly with his devotion to defensive rigour.
Pereira’s big personality could be an issue though. He has a reputation for being confrontational with players, journalists and press officers. He takes no nonsense from problem players, which is probably no bad thing if discipline is required to right the sinking ship.
Wolves have, after all, let themselves down on this front with the likes of Ait-Nouri, Mario Lemina (£5.0m) and Cunha all having suffered major emotional meltdowns of late to the detriment of the team. But if Pereira goes in hard does he not run the risk of alienating the very players who are best equipped to dig Wolves out of their current hole?
Wolves’ most desirable asset at present is Cunha who, FA charges notwithstanding, remains an attractive FPL asset. O’Neil said he had done a lot of work in making Cunha understand how to operate within a team structure.
Cunha is a bit of an individualist, an off-the-cuff maverick capable of magical moments, but who lacked positional awareness. He has been improving on his link-play and all-round team contribution throughout the season and scoring some incredible goals.
Cunha’s stats remain impressive. Since Gameweek 6 no forward has produced more attacking returns than the Brazilian and only Erling Haaland (£14.9m) has attempted more than his 46 shots this season. But will this continue under Pereira?
The coach does at least speak Cunha’s language and his nationality should help communication with the large contingent of Portuguese speakers in the squad. Perhaps Joao Gomes (£5.2m) and Goncalo Guedes (£5.3m) will thrive under the new man?
Ait-Nouri has also been one of Wolves’ star turns as a defender who picks up attacking returns. It remains to be seen whether that offensive impulse will be reined in under Pereira as he looks to plug the leaking holes.
Whether Pereira reverts to his old ways with his tried and trusted 4-3-3 or goes for the new-fangled 3-4-3 he picked up from his travels will make for fascinating viewing. Which players stand to gain from it? If he shores up the defence perhaps Wolves defenders like Craig Dawson (£4.4m) will come back in vogue.
Pereira does at least have a winnable first match. The Foxes have conceded 74 shots in three games since Ruud van Nistelrooy took over. Cunha and Strand Larsen could therefore have a field day.
Thereafter though things get rather tricky. Manchester United in Gameweek 18 and Tottenham Hotspur in Gameweek 19 will give up chances but according to our Season Ticker, Wolves have the second-hardest run over the 10 fixtures from Gameweek 18.
The message has to be watch this space. If you have Cunha or Strand Larsen, perhaps keep them for this week and see how they integrate into Pereira’s system. One suspects, though, that the brutal fixture schedule will limit their appeal.
