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You might not recognise Andreas Pereira these days.

Andreas is the name now stitched onto the back of his crisp white shirt at Valencia as he looks to step out his father's shadow and make his own name in football with those frosted tips of his.

And Pereira, or Andreas, is well on his way to becoming a household name and could yet prove Jose Mourinho wrong by showing some fight amid stiff competition from PSG loanee Goncalo Guedes.

The 21-year-old has started 60% of his games, created three goals and been at the heart of Valencia's remarkable start to the season under new boss Marcelino.

Los Che sit just four points behind league leaders Barcelona in second place and already look well placed to return to the Champions League after a five-year absence.

Pereira will point to that as vindication for his 11th-hour decision to again go out on loan after being left out of the first three match day squads of the season. Again.

The Brazilian may have been handed the No.15 shirt, and featured in all seven of United's pre-season games in a deep-lying role in central midfield, but, clearly, Mourinho could not give him the guarantees he wanted.

So can you blame him?

Despite making his senior debut at the age of 18, Pereira has made just two starts for United at a time when Marcus Rashford, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and even Guillermo Varela have been parachuted in.

The guarantee of a third-round Carabao Cup tie or a dead rubber in the Champions League group stages is no longer enough. Pereira, unlike, say, the younger Scott McTominay, will feel he needs more at this stage in his career.

The winger is no longer a teenager - turning 22 in January - and saw his reputation skyrocket when he was handed a regular run of football at Granada last season.

This was a team made up of a whopping 13 loanees which won just five games all season under three different managers. Yet, Pereira still emerged with immense credit. And his game continues to evolve in Spain.

The manner in which he tracked back and led the breakaway for Simone Zaza's opener against Athletic Bilbao last month was perfect evidence of that.

There has been the odd hiccup - an eight-month driving ban after being caught driving his Bentley at 148km/hr in a 50km/hr zone for starters - and some fans would have preferred Pereira to stay in England.

The Brazilian has made just six appearances in the Premier League, all from the bench, but a loan move to a Newcastle or a Stoke would have been seen as the next step in his development.

Or, indeed, to some, staying at United at a time when they are lacking creativity and pinpoint crosses following Paul Pogba’s injury and Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s struggles.

Pereira has some of those qualities that Mourinho identified in Ivan Perisic, the elusive fourth signing the Portuguese badly wanted as he plotted a title-winning blueprint to get the most out of Romelu Lukaku.

Mourinho appeared to be banging that drum on his own at times, but there was a science behind that pursuit: Perisic's crossing.

The Croatian completed 197 crosses from open play in Serie A last season - more than any other player - and created 61 chances.

No one in the Premier League, let alone Serie A, came close to attempting that many crosses; to put it into perspective, Antonio Valencia managed a respectable 142 crosses from right-back last season so it was obvious why Mourinho wanted to address the left-hand side.

Pereira could yet save United an awful lot of money.

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