Andreas Pereira praised Fulham head coach Marco Silva’s influence after he bagged the first Premier League brace of his career in the 2-0 win at West Ham United.
The Brazilian international, whose first goal for Fulham came at the London Stadium in a 3-1 defeat last season, revealed that he had been working hard with Silva and the club’s coaching staff at Motspur Park to add more goals to his game. He told FFCTV:
“I have a great relationship with him. He’s always put a lot of confidence in me. This season has been a special season for me with a lot of ups and down, but I came back from an injury. He’s always kept believing me and that’s what’s important. It’s a lot of hard work. He’s always been speaking with me about arriving more in the box and get opportunities to score. I’ve been working a lot with him, with Boa and with everyone, today it’s finally paid off and I’m being happy.
Today, everything came together, the team played very well and I was very lucky to score two goals. It was an important three points that we needed, especially after a few away games with disappointing results. We were very happy today. It was fun. It has been a great few weeks for me and hopefully we can finish the season strongly [and] have a lot more celebrations.”
It was very noticeable that he was playing much further forward, following the play and arriving in the box at the right time, much in the Lampard vein. Lesson learned hopefully more of the same. Marco definitely seems to have the skills to assist players in maximising theirs .Good coach/manager, probably our best ever, hope he stays for a good many more seasons. More collective concentration and consistency and we should improve our position in the table over the next few years.