Analysing Bruno Guimarães’ role on his full Newcastle debut
Bruno impressed after scoring the winner on his long awaited, full debut for the club.
After Joelinton was ruled out of Thursday night’s fixture through injury, there was a big gap to fill in the Newcastle midfield and Bruno Guimarães was the perfect choice to do so.
The Brazilian international showed exactly why Newcastle fans are excited to see more of him, as he dictated the tempo and contributed in defence as well as attack, scoring an outrageous goal in the process to win the game.
A big part of Eddie Howe’s system is how good his teams are on the ball, however with Newcastle only having 62.8% pass accuracy in the previous gameweek against Brighton, the lowest of any team in the league, it was vital this improved and Guimarães would be key for that to happen.
He did just that as Newcastle had 70% pass accuracy, with Guimarães himself having just under 70% pass accuracy helping his team to retain possession and take care of the ball in the little time that they had it.
He also matched the vital defensive work normally demonstrated in midfield by Joelinton. With one interception, one block and two clearances he aided the Magpies defensively in another solid performance in a tricky fixture.
As well as slotting in for Joelinton, he also helped cover the absence of Allan Saint Maximin as Newcastle’s main ball carrier. Guimarães managed to carry the ball 201 yards, more than any other Newcastle player despite only playing 67 minutes. The Brazilian also drew 3 fouls for the Toon, with Saint Maximin averaging just under this per90 this season.
This is integral to Newcastle’s game as it allows them to progress further forward when attacking and draw fouls to move them gradually up the pitch, something that is sorely missed with Saint Maximin’s absence.
And of course he topped off his full debut by firing a phenomenal backheel volley past Fraser Forster in the 52nd minute to win the game and truly announce his arrival in the Premier League.
Toon fans have been eagerly awaiting Bruno’s first start for the club and they were not disappointed as he masked the absence of two key players and guided the team to their 6th win in 7 games, extending the unbeaten run to 9 games as Newcastle’s resurgence under Eddie Howe continues.
