Ryan Mason has had plenty of time now to chew over West Bromwich Albion’s disastrous 3-0 defeat away at Millwall last time out in the unforgiving Championship.
It will be intriguing, therefore, with the international break giving him that adequate time to assess what went wrong, what Baggies team he selects for West Brom’s return to league action versus Preston North End on Saturday.
The rookie boss will just hope his team doesn’t collapse under the weight of being early promotion candidates, with three defeats in the league to date, only leaving them five points shy of Frank Lampard’s free-flowing Coventry City at the very top of the division.
Worryingly, though, West Brom only have nine goals next to their name when weighed up alongside the Sky Blues’ absurd 27 efforts, with Mason crying out for a Matheus Pereira-type presence in the here and now to take his pedestrian side up a notch.
Pereira's promotion-winning magic
West Brom very much hit instant gold when securing the services of Brazilian star Matheus Pereira in 2019.
Signing initially on loan, with a view to making his switch permanent, Pereira would go on to be a talismanic figure for Slaven Bilic’s promotion-chasers at the time, with ex-Baggies legend Jonathan Greening even stating – during that promotion push – that the spellbinding number 12 can do a “little bit of everything.”
Games played
77
Goals scored
20
Assists
26
Promotions
1x
Judging from his ridiculous numbers above, it’s clear that West Brom had pulled off a mighty coup, tempting Pereira to the Hawthorns when they did, with his blistering 20 goals and 26 assists from 77 outings pushing the West Midlands outfit up to the Premier League, before relegation was unfortunately served up.
Clearly, after becoming West Brom’s top goalscorer in the daunting top-flight, Pereira was always going to be uneasy about being a big fish in a small pond in the EFL again, with a mega-money switch to Al-Hilal then bringing his whirlwind stay in England to a close.
To this day, however, Pereira is still heralded as one of the most entertaining attackers to have graced the Hawthorns, with the football served up by Mason and Co. so far this season failing to be as captivating to watch.
The 34-year-old does have Isaac Price at his disposal as one entertainer, but there is another member of his camp now who could go on to be a Pereira-style figure, having once lined up for Juventus in the Champions League, before relocating to the Baggies.
The West Brom "menace" who's the new Pereira
While Price does have three goals and one assist next to his name this season already, from just nine league appearances, he has looked poor in recent match-ups, notably away at the Den last match.
Indeed, the usually electric midfielder would manage just one drab effort on the Lions’ goal throughout, with possession also squandered a costly 14 times from his 40 touches of the ball.
Coincidentally, his replacement during the 3-0 defeat in Samuel Iling-Junior could actually be Mason’s own Pereira-type figure, operating as another dazzling left-footer either centrally or on the flanks.
Juventus U18s
58
14 + 15
Juventus
45
2 + 4
Middlesbrough
16
1 + 2
Bologna
16
2 + 0
Juventus Next Gen
13
5 + 2
Chelsea U18s
9
0 + 1
Juventus Youth League
8
1 + 2
West Brom
4
1 + 0
Chelsea Youth League
3
0
Aston Villa
0
0
Much like Pereira, who boasted Bundesliga side Nuremberg on his career CV before moving to the Baggies, Iling-Junior has a long list of esteemed clubs on his own unfurling resume, with a youth education that saw the 22-year-old line up for both Chelsea U18s and Juventus U18s.
His time with the Old Lady would even see him make 45 senior appearances – as he was also dubbed a “superb” talent by scout Jacek Kulig during one Champions League outing for the Italian titans – culminating in his parent employers, Aston Villa, splashing out a whopping £12m to win his services in 2024.
He is yet to make a senior appearance for Unai Emery’s men, but with near neighbours West Brom, he is already living up to the “menace” billing once handed to him by scout Antonio Mango, with this terrific solo goal at the end of September, his first ever strike in Baggies’ blue and white.
Mason will be praying that more goals such as this magic solo effort are put away shortly, with Iling-Junior perhaps the force that catapults West Brom into the promotion reckoning more convincingly.
After all, all those years back, Pereira was a similar bright spark capable of such fine individual moments as Premier League football was clinched.