Chris Waugh has been speaking on the Pod on the Tyne podcast about what he saw from Bruno Guimaraes during Newcastle United’s latest victories.
Newcastle’s marquee January signing is yet to start a game on Tyneside and has only been afforded two small cameo roles in both of the club’s latest two victories against Everton and Aston Villa.
Should Guimaraes start this weekend?
Yes!
No!
When Guimaraes was signed by Newcastle for £40 million, it may well have been expected by fans that he would slot straight into the team and improve them massively. However, that’s not been the case, with a midfield trio of Jonjo Shelvey, Joe Willock and Joelinton fighting admirably well to keep their places in the side, which according to Waugh, has been much to the annoyance of Guimaraes.
Waugh offered this insight into something many fans may have missed during the Everton win last week:
“He was getting visibly frustrated on the touchline, he was in both games. [In] the Everton game, he kept looking across to the dugout; there was one stage in the Everton match where he looked up at the clock, held his arms aloft as if to say, ‘am I going to get on here or not?’ So he’s desperate to get involved.”
TIF Thoughts on Bruno Guimaraes…
The Brazilian was a regular starter for former club Lyon in Ligue 1, so will be finding this new situation rather alien to him having just featured for a few minutes off the bench, but with Newcastle performing so well and having won their last three matches, there appears no need to disrupt the balance of the current starting XI.
Guimaraes has already endeared himself more to the Newcastle faithful by beginning to learn English already despite only being on Tyneside for a few weeks – something that will only enhance his potential of starting if he can communicate more effectively with his teammates.
In other news: ‘Come alive again’ – Surprise name tipped for possible big role under Howe at Newcastle