Eddie Howe will be without Sean Longstaff as Newcastle United take on Brighton tonight and must now rely on Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes to shore up the midfield.
Newcastle really miss Sean Longstaff in the middle of the park when he’s unavailable, that has become excruciatingly clear in the last couple of games, but Eddie Howe has told The Chronicle that he feels he has the man, or men for the job to plug that gap against Brighton.
Howe believes he can rely on Newcastle’s Brazilians, Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes to step up and take over the duties that Sean Longstaff usually carries out; stopping the opposition’s midfield advance and setting up the counter-attack. During the game against Leeds, Howe asked Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton to double up and control the midfield together and it worked well.
Eddie Howe says Joelinton has been ‘incredible’
Speaking to The Chronicle, Howe heaped praise on Joelinton, saying: “They are very different players. But Joelinton has just been incredible, physically this year.
“What he gives in every game it is never taken for granted by me or the coaching staff. Or certainly his team-mates – he’s a player that just gives his all in every match.”
He went on to mention how Joelinton and Bruno linked up against Leeds, saying: “I thought the pair of them dovetailed really well. We changed the system a couple of times and they ended up playing together. I thought that they were really strong.”
Brighton will pose a very different threat to Leeds tonight and, for me, I think having both Joelinton and Bruno sitting back and tidying up the midfield could really stifle us going forward, and in a game we really need to win, we’re going to need a goal threat.
Joelinton should be the man to sit deep against Brighton tonight
Therefore, as good as Joelinton has been getting forward this season, he’d get my vote to be the one to sit a bit deeper. We know he’s not afraid of a challenge, although sometimes, he can be a bit too keen to try and stop the opposition having picked up 12 yellow cards this season.
I just feel that it suits his game better than it does Bruno’s. I know Guimaraes was brought with a view to playing as a defensive midfielder, but he showed right away that he is far too creative going forward to waste in that deep lying role.
Joelinton has become a jack of all trades under Eddie Howe and having him sit deep is fine because we have Joe Willock, Elliot Anderson or Anthony Gordon who can tear up and down that left hand side. If you pull Bruno out of position, there’s nobody as capable as him to fill the void.
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