Newcastle United’s Bruno Guimaraes ‘couldn’t handle’ Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay with the Premier League playmaker struggling to dictate proceedings in a 2-0 Brazil defeat.
Well, Newcastle United’s number 39 now knows how Paris Saint-Germain felt.
Luis Enrique came under fire after his tactics backfired at St James’ Park, PSG’s two-man midfield chasing shadows as Newcastle ran riot on a night in which Champions League football returned to Tyneside for the first time in 20 years.
In Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier in Uruguay, however, the shoe was on the other foot, Bruno Guimaraes left feeling like Manuel Ugarte did as Fernando Diniz’s Brazil were given the runaround by a typically ferocious, free-flowing Marcelo Bielsa outfit.
Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes toils in Brazil defeat
A serious-looking injury to captain Neymar left Brazil without a link between midfield and attack, leaving both Guimaraes and Casemiro toiling against the tide of Uruguayan attacks.
“Diniz’s strategy went wrong,” was the verdict of Brazilian publication Globo Esporte. “The Selecao prepared a trap from which Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay managed to escape.
“This last problem worsened after Neymar’s injury. There were four attackers left and no regular playmaker. Casemiro and Bruno Guimaraes were overloaded in the transition and couldn’t handle it.”
Guimaraes, given a 5/10 match rating by Goal, is yet to consistently replicate his outstanding club form on the international stage, although Diniz must take some of the blame for that on a night in which 68-year-old Bielsa out-thought and out-coached a man two decades his junior.
A 5/10 performance
ESPN Brazil reporter Fernando Campos, meanwhile, believes that Guimaraes is struggling to escape the shadow of his former Lyon team-mate – and now West Ham star – Lucas Paqueta in that iconic yellow and blue kit.
“For me, (Paqueta) is the best Brazilian midfielder in the world. What he’s doing at West Ham, it’s a joke,” Campos argues.
“At the moment, in this season, he’s playing a lot with and without the ball. It’s absurd, right, the influence he has on David Moyes’ team?”
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