Chris Waugh has been speaking on Pod on the Tyne about whether or not he believes Bruno Guimaraes will start for Newcastle United this weekend.
Despite arriving for £40 million in January and creating a lot of excitement, Guimaraes is still yet to start for Newcastle, having been handed small cameo roles by Eddie Howe in the two first games during his time on Tyneside.
Should Guimaraes start this weekend?
Yes!
No!
Waugh also claimed earlier on in the podcast that he noticed Guimaraes getting visibly frustrated at his lack of minutes during the victory against Everton last week, so if he doesn’t start on Saturday, that may become even more obvious and will surely test Howe’s resolve when it comes to keeping him on the bench.
Howe has a selection dilemma on his hands once again, but Waugh isn’t confident that Guimaraes will get his first start.
He said: “I think it’s interesting because I think Howe will fancy the balance of the midfield he’s got at the moment. I don’t see Bruno coming into the side next weekend.
“I still don’t think, if Howe was only willing to give him for the last 10 minutes or so again, I’d be very surprised to see him start at the London Stadium unless there is a sort of physical issue with one of the others.”
TIF Thoughts on Bruno Guimaraes…
When Newcastle signed a Brazilian international or a club-record fee, it would have been natural for fans to assume that he would go straight into a side that had won just once all season. However, the likes of Joelinton, Jonjo Shelvey and Joe Willock appear to have upped their game with this fresh competition arriving and have made it difficult for Howe to drop any of them.
If Howe does not feel like he can start Guimaraes soon, then it may give off a bad feeling to the midfielder as he could begin to question why he left Lyon where he was a regular and set to be playing in the Europa League, so it’s certainly a fine balancing act Howe’s got on his hands.
In other news: Spotted at SJP: Journalist claims January signing is already getting ‘frustrated’ at Newcastle