Hatters fans who looked at the bench named by Nathan Jones for the clash with Swansea City on Saturday may have been a little surprised to see the name Dion Pereira on it.
I must say I wasn’t too shocked. When it was announced that the 21-year-old had joined as a development player earlier in the season, I didn’t think it would be too long before we saw him in and around the first team.
It also doesn’t surprise me that when questioned about the youngster in the press conference ahead of the Coventry City stalemate, Jones said: “We’ve had him training around the first team squad, so we know that he has something.
“Dion’s not a token. He’s been doing well in training and he’s show stuff in games where think he’s deserved an opportunity.
“If he does get into the first team then it won’t be alien to him.”
I would imagine that apart from a video of his best moments that has done the rounds of social media, not many Luton fans have seen Pereira play.
I’m in the fortunate position of having seen quite a bit of him. I cover Major League Soccer for my website – kevshatsportsbets.com – and Pereira was last seen playing regularly for Atlanta United, one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference of that league and, indeed, the champions the season before youngster arrived in America.
Pereira had big shoes to fill replacing Miguel Almiron who went off to Newcastle, and although he wasn’t a regular starter during his campaign in MLS, he featured 18 times in a decent season.
The reason why I expect to see the ex-Watford youngster in and around our first team is because you could argue he is exactly what we are missing.
He is a pacey winger who plays predominantly on the left side, who can go past a player with his skill and stretch defences with his pace, which is something we haven’t had for a while and who could be crucial to any front three.
Clearly the Town aren’t scoring as many goals as we all like, something Mick Harford referred to after the shutout against Coventry on Tuesday evening, and the longer that continues the sooner I expect Pereira to get his breakthrough chance.
@dan c if you watch the video above he could of got 10 assists easy if the striker was clinical
It’s a little concerning that he only ever got one league assist, which was just clearing a ball out of the back line, in the year Josef Martinez broke the scoring record.
Realistically Barco/Villalba/Gressel/Pity/Meram were all ahead of him in the wing roles, and Andrew Carleton was until forgot his passport and missed a flight.