Since his arrival in January 2022 Bruno Guimaraes has become the linchpin of Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United side.
The way Newcastle play under Eddie Howe relies heavily on Bruno Guimaraes‘ ability to dictate the play. His calmness under pressure is what sets him apart from so many other midfielders.
This season, however, it seems that he’s not been at his absolute best, although after his showings for Brazil this month and his efforts against AC Milan on Tuesday, he’s definitely coming back up to his own lofty standard.
Bruno Guimaraes is the key to how Newcastle play
Bruno’s importance to Newcastle has clearly given other sides cause for concern as the gameplan to stop Newcastle is to stop Bruno.
The Athletic today ran an article about the increasing value of press-resistant midfielders and although they never actually mention Bruno Guimaraes in their report, they did provide a chart which was an eye-opener.
The chart shows all the similar midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues with the Y axis labeled as “Pressure received per 30 minutes of team possession” and the X axis as “Ball retention % under pressure”.
In that chart the place to be is in the top right quadrant and the closer to the top right of the chart the better the player is. Bruno Guimaraes is in that top right quadrant but more to the centre of the X axis.
However, he is by far the highest player on the Y axis meaning that there is no other player in Europe’s top five leagues who is put under as much pressure as Guimaraes.
Sandro Tonali could lighten Bruno’s load going forward
If that doesn’t tell you just how much our Premier League opponents are terrified of what he can do I don’t know what does.
It could also explain the slight drop in form as he battles with trying to find a way to beat the pressure he’s being put under this season.
Of course this season he has Sandro Tonali along side him who will be able to take that pressure off him once the pair work out each other’s play styles.
Leave a Reply