What Bruno Guimaraes did to the bench before Newcastle’s late defeat to Manchester City

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Newcastle United came so close to securing a positive result against the greatest team in the world before falling at the final hurdle, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort as Bruno Guimaraes proved.

It looked to be another one of those games as Man City cut so easily through Newcastle’s defence in the first half to take the lead, but Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak had other ideas as their efforts in quick succession turned the game around.

But with Newcastle holding on for a point in the dying minutes, a new report from The Athletic has claimed that Bruno refused to take the sting out of the game and be subbed off for Jamaal Lascelles before City scored the winner.

Bruno ignored the instructions from Newcastle’s bench

It was a frustrating day for everyone at the club, but this latest defeat was not down to a lack of hunger or desire which looked to be the problem against Luton and Nottingham Forest.

Instead, it was a matter of quality which saw Pep Guardiola’s team take all three points after the treble-winner subbed on Kevin de Bruyne while Newcastle’s only change was Lewis Hall in the last five minutes.

The only other change Eddie Howe had been pondering all night was whether or not to switch to a back five and with Bruno appearing to be struggling with his hamstring, the Brazilian was almost brought off in the final moments.

However, the midfielder raised his fingers to the bench, gesturing to them that he wanted to stay on for 10 more minutes to see out the game, and ultimately it told the story of the game, of Newcastle’s very limited options.

Newcastle need to use that desire in their remaining games

While the result was devastating for Newcastle, if they can use that quality shown by Gordon and Isak throughout the second half of the season then they shouldn’t have too much to worry about.

Once the likes of Harvey Barnes, Joe Willock, Jacob Murphy and others make their returns from injury, Howe will also have a much healthier bench and more options to change the game late on.

Too many times this season we’ve seen Newcastle in control and lose out in the final moments because of a lack of energy and fatigue starting to set into the players who are having to play a full 90 every game.