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A cursory glance at the La Liga table will tell you Andreas Pereira is playing in a poor Granada team. But at least he is playing.

Granada have played seven league games so far this season, drawing two and losing five. They are bottom, a point behind Osasuna, the only other team yet to win a game.

Their worst start to a season for more than 70 years has cost manager Paco Jemez his job and they are already favourites for relegation.

But if Pereira carries on playing the way he has done during his loan spell away from Manchester United, he will not be lining up in Spain’s second tier next season.

The Belgium-born midfielder has only been in Granada, in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, for little more than a month, but he has already made more league appearances than in five years at Old Trafford.

Since making his debut as a 56th-minute substitute during a 5-1 defeat at Las Palmas at the end of August, the 20-year-old has not missed a single minute.

And the view of those who watch Granada regularly is that if they had 10 others like him they would not be in the position they currently find themselves.

Playing on the left of Granada’s front three, he has been one of their few highlights during a miserable start.

From Lommel United near Duffel, Belgium to the surrounds of Sierra Nevada mountains via PSV Eindhoven and Manchester, his journey has, at times, been a bumpy one.

There were spells last season when Pereira, the son of a former Brazilian professional footballer, thought about quitting United permanently.

He impressed on the pre-season tour of the United States two summers ago. But his reward during the season was just two starts, both in the League Cup, and nine substitute appearances.

He might have expected to start early FA Cup ties against Sheffield United and Shrewsbury but was named on the bench both times.

After signing a new contract in May 2015, Van Gaal described Pereira as a player with ‘all the attributes to become an integral part of the first team’.

And it became a source of intense frustration last season that he wasn’t given the chance to prove the Dutchman right.

Jose Mourinho, Van Gaal’s successor, has said all the right things.

The new United manager said he would ‘love to have him in the squad’ but had to go to Spain for the sake of his development.

Pereira says Mourinho has already pencilled him into the United squad for next season provided he impresses for Granada.

So far, he is holding up his end of the deal.

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