Bruno Guimarães

[MrRaspberryJam]

Thought he was gonna have a blinder after that first time through ball to Isak. 
 

He’ll be fine, we’ll be fine. 

[Ronaldo]

There was a moment on about 15-20 minutes when he got the ball in a bit of space in their half, took 3 touches to get the ball under control and then lost it through poor execution and a lack of willingness to carry it.

 

Really weird. Not sure what’s up with him. 

[TRon]

12 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

It’s funny. A few of us remarked he looked a bit slow when he joined and it became a joke because he was so good and aggressive etc.  but like now…. He’s actually slow. 
 

But I blame the system and tactics more than anything for his and the entire midfields performances in the main. They’ve all looked off or done silly things but it’s the system in the main that isn’t working. 

 

I remember getting pulled up for it when I said something about him not being an athlete, but of course he's a lot better footballer than most midfielders who can motor. He's similar to Cabaye in that regard, both are good playmakers, but it does mean they will be prone to late tackles now and then.

[Newcastle Fan]

He was dominating midfields since he joined and even linked with Real Madrid and is a regular brazil international, despite the terrible start to the season there is no question of his quality, our issues seem more tactical than anything.

[The College Dropout]

15 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

I remember getting pulled up for it when I said something about him not being an athlete, but of course he's a lot better footballer than most midfielders who can motor. He's similar to Cabaye in that regard, both are good playmakers, but it does mean they will be prone to late tackles now and then.

Aye and he's aggressive which mitigates the lack of athleticism to some extent. 

 

5 minutes ago, Newcastle Fan said:

He was dominating midfields since he joined and even linked with Real Madrid and is a regular brazil international, despite the terrible start to the season there is no question of his quality, our issues seem more tactical than anything.

I agree with this as well. Most of the issues in the last 3 have been down to (1) quality opposition and great coaches and (2) tactical issues. The approach is not working.

 

But he is slow like.

[mouldy_uk]

Being naturally fast isn’t a necessity for the great midfielders, they buy that extra yard with great anticipation and control, or finding those gaps on the pitch that give them time. 
 

 

[Shearergol]

Joelinton was the issue yesterday, plus our lack of movement. Bruno was looking annoyed every time he was looking to pass the ball and nobody showed for it. 

[The College Dropout]

29 minutes ago, mouldy_uk said:

Being naturally fast isn’t a necessity for the great midfielders, they buy that extra yard with great anticipation and control, or finding those gaps on the pitch that give them time. 
 

 

I agree. But it is useful. Especially for a team that doesn't dominate possession - it's more important as you need to run and close down players.

 

Bruno is a little slow but it's not a massive issue. He's aggressive, has great work rate, good anticipation etc.

 

When players do well it's like you can't talk about their limitations. And when they do badly, people act like it's only because of these limitations. Neither is the correct approach. in the right setup when he's in the zone, he's a fantastic player. Great at passing it through the lines. Controls a game. Plays with real character. Can score a goal. But sometimes his tackling is late and bad, sometimes he takes too long on the ball and loses it in bad positions, he's not the quickest across the ground. It's all true.

[Kanji]

Don’t get it twisted, when we went on that run last season before the World Cup, Bruno was statistically level with Rodri and Declan Rice in his 6 role duties. So all this talk of athleticism, roles etc really do need to be taken with some context here. He played as a 6 last season and for half a season until his ankle injury, was about as class as you can get. 

[ExiledGeordie]

He’s certainly not moving as quickly as normal and looks undercooked and off the pace a bit. He’ll be fine but I would bring Longstaff in and let him sit allowing Bruno and Tonali to do their thing. The side is constantly evolving but it does make you think another defensive minded player will be brought in at some point.

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by ExiledGeordie

[WinstonFC]

You put an elite DMC in with a two of Bruno, Tonali or Joelinton and we will thrive. One of those has to be dropped though. The current 3 together doesnt work IMO, against lesser opposition maybe. Longstaff played the DMC role really well last season and he isnt even a natural DMC. He is industrious and covers the forward runs of the other two. 

[MrRaspberryJam]

Just now, WinstonFC said:

You put an elite DMC in with a two of Bruno, Tonali or Joelinton and we will thrive. One of those has to be dropped though. The current 3 together doesnt work IMO, against lesser opposition maybe. Longstaff played the DMC role really well last season and he isnt even a natural DMC. He is industrious and covers the forward runs of the other two. 

Could shift Joelinton to LW.  

[TRon]

2 hours ago, WinstonFC said:

You put an elite DMC in with a two of Bruno, Tonali or Joelinton and we will thrive. One of those has to be dropped though. The current 3 together doesnt work IMO, against lesser opposition maybe. Longstaff played the DMC role really well last season and he isnt even a natural DMC. He is industrious and covers the forward runs of the other two. 

 

Can't say I remember Longstaff playing that role very often, he normally plays the number 8 position where Tonali is currently positioned. Longstaff's got the phsyical attributes required for a number 6, but not sure his distribution would hold up under pressure.

[The College Dropout]

44 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Can't say I remember Longstaff playing that role very often, he normally plays the number 8 position where Tonali is currently positioned. Longstaff's got the phsyical attributes required for a number 6, but not sure his distribution would hold up under pressure.

I agree with this. Under pressure he would just aimlessly chip it into space / nobody.  
 

But Henderson did the same thing and he may have played the deepest CM role at times.  Although again I mostly remember him at RCM putting in crap cross after crap cross. 

[Smal]

I actually thought Tonali did well against Brighton, but tactically his positioning was very odd. Bruno seemed to be isolated in the first phase of build up and had no option but to either pass back to Schar or an aimless/overly-ambition forward pass. I mean, look at where Tonali is on the pass map:

 

 

This just seems well off from what we were doing last season. Trippier has plenty of the ball but is really deep and generally just playing it back and forth with Schar. Tonali is receiving the ball where Almiron would have been normally. The shape is all over the place.

 

We need to get Tonali to help Bruno in build up and start getting Trippier high and wide with Almiron closer to Isak, and get our patterns going down that side again. 

[Nine]

4 hours ago, MrRaspberryJam said:

Could shift Joelinton to LW.  

That means dropping Gordon who has started the season well, just potentially creating more issues.

[Gallowgate Toon]

5 minutes ago, Smal said:

I actually thought Tonali did well against Brighton, but tactically his positioning was very odd. Bruno seemed to be isolated in the first phase of build up and had no option but to either pass back to Schar or an aimless/overly-ambition forward pass. I mean, look at where Tonali is on the pass map:

 

 

This just seems well off from what we were doing last season. Trippier has plenty of the ball but is really deep and generally just playing it back and forth with Schar. Tonali is receiving the ball where Almiron would have been normally. The shape is all over the place.

 

We need to get Tonali to help Bruno in build up and start getting Trippier high and wide with Almiron closer to Isak, and get our patterns going down that side again. 

Aye, feels weird. This maybe could've been in response to Brighton's pressing to have some alternative long options. Weirdly, we never switched play. Not sure if that graphic shows that Bruno doesn't trust Burn on the ball as well 

 

[MrRaspberryJam]

25 minutes ago, Nine said:

That means dropping Gordon who has started the season well, just potentially creating more issues.

 

Aye, but was thinking along the lines of going back to what got us results last season.

[The College Dropout]

40 minutes ago, Smal said:

I actually thought Tonali did well against Brighton, but tactically his positioning was very odd. Bruno seemed to be isolated in the first phase of build up and had no option but to either pass back to Schar or an aimless/overly-ambition forward pass. I mean, look at where Tonali is on the pass map:

 

 

This just seems well off from what we were doing last season. Trippier has plenty of the ball but is really deep and generally just playing it back and forth with Schar. Tonali is receiving the ball where Almiron would have been normally. The shape is all over the place.

 

We need to get Tonali to help Bruno in build up and start getting Trippier high and wide with Almiron closer to Isak, and get our patterns going down that side again. 

Look how vertical brightons lines are and how horizontal ours are. The Brighton middle 4 high and close together. The attacking 4. High and close together. They got the ball to that front 4 up against our defence so easily.

[Smal]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

Look how vertical brightons lines are and how horizontal ours are. The Brighton middle 4 high and close together. The attacking 4. High and close together. They got the ball to that front 4 up against our defence so easily.

Our press was miles off.

 

I'm still incredulous that Joelinton played. He couldn't run, let alone tackle. You can't carry someone like that in midfield with the way we want to press.

[Likelylad]

He hadn't trained all week. Love big Joe but it was a very poor decision to start him. 

[TRC]

Our heatmaps are all over this season, just shows something isnt right. Joelinton still playing like he is rotating with Willock, but Gordon hugs the touchline more. Bruno pretty much the 6, and Tonali comes in to RB to cover Trippier a lot. Absolutely nothing where you would expect to see a 10.

[mouldy_uk]

 

 

[jackyboy]

I wonder if some of the transfer talk and contract wrangling have distracted him?

[mouldy_uk]

Would be interesting to correlate his match ratings with before and after becoming a new parent 

 

 

Ok, not that interesting