Sam Allardyce: Matheus Pereira must find speed to be Premier League success

The Brazilian playmaker hasn’t scored for seven matches and is struggling for form at the time when the relegation-threatened Baggies need him most.

Pereira was again a peripheral figure in Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Newcastle and Allardyce believes speeding up his play is the key.

He explained: “I think he needs to do what he is trying to do quicker – because the Premier League is a lot quicker in terms of you thinking and you moving. It’s not like that down in the Championship.

“I think if he can sharpen his movement up and sharpen his delivery up and move the ball a little quicker he will get a lot more joy in the final third.

“He will get more joy with the number of assists he gets and hopefully a lot more joy with his shots at goal.”

Pereira, who scored eight times last season to help Albion win promotion from the Championship, is the club’s top scorer this term with five goals.

But four of those came during a four-game spell in January and like several other members of the Baggies promotion-winning team the 24-year-old has struggled for consistency during his maiden Premier League campaign.

“I thought Matheus should have had a goal against Newcastle with a side-foot volley in the first-half which he mishit,” continued Allardyce.

“If I had somebody I wanted it to fall to it would have been him. And I was disappointed he didn’t thrash that into the back of the net. But that’s where we are at the minute, we can’t finish.”

The draw with Newcastle, a match Allardyce had previously described as ‘must-win’, left Albion eight points from safety with just 10 matches left to play.

Midfielder Okay Yokuslu, who has impressed since joining on loan from Celta Vigo in January, admitted the result felt like another missed opportunity.

Albion, who have now won just three of their 28 Premier League matches this season, next visit Crystal Palace on Saturday.

“It was a very important game for us and it hurts that we haven’t won it,” said Yokuslu.

“Everyone in the dressing room is sad because we desperately wanted three points.

“We had chances and we should have won the game in my opinion. I think we played well and I think we were the much better team.

“We cannot change the result now. We have to stay positive and stay focused on trying to get out of trouble.

“We wanted more than four points from these three home games. I think we deserved more as well but this is football and it can happen. Sometimes you don’t get what you think you deserve.

“We have to keep working. It’s a positive thing for us to have kept a few clean sheets recently.

“We’ve been working on our defensive duties, but clean sheets are not enough for us at this stage.

“We know we have to be winning games because that’s the only way we are going to catch teams above us.”