NEWCASTLE: Social media can be a blessing as well as a curse for the modern-day footballer.
While it gives the player instant access to fans and the ability to share the adulation of victory, certainly brushing the ego on the way, it also opens a direct window for criticism. One Newcastle United player in the firing line, of sorts, has been Bruno Guimaraes.
The Brazilian has long been held up as the face of PIF-owned Newcastle United. A dazzling midfielder with Premier League game-dictating ability, Guimaraes is a firm fan favorite on Tyneside. However, this week, following a slightly underwhelming performance in the defeat to Manchester City — he was not alone in that — Guimaraes found himself in the crosshairs.
A popular Magpies’ fan account called NUFC 360, which has more than 135,000 followers, posted a picture of the player, with teammates Dan Burn, Miguel Almiron and good friend Joelinton, with the caption “Is it too early in the season to start focusing blame onto individual players? Was there an overreaction to the loss to Man City?” Guimaraes did not take kindly to it.
The former Lyon man fired back via his own personal Twitter account.
His post, in a now-deleted tweet, read: “Is this serious? We are in Champions League football, we lost against maybe one of the best teams in the world and we have a big win and lost one game.
“Support in the best moment is easy. Short, stupid memories you all have. Look what we have done for the team in one year and a half.”
This prompted a swift apology to Guimaraes, who then deleted his riposte.
The fact the saga played out in front of millions on the social media platform proved no good look for either the fan-led account or Guimaraes, who will line up for the Magpies against Liverpool on Sunday. And while head coach Eddie Howe does not support his player’s “emotional” response, he does not want to criticize the star for showing that side of himself in the face of criticism.
“I’m certainly not going to criticize the supporters here. I think it’s more a lesson for us,” said Howe, whose side have won one and lost one of their opening two Premier League games.
“I choose not to be on social media for that exact reason, because I want a clear thought process. I don’t want to pollute my thoughts with things that I read, and avoid certain situations, so I take myself out of that environment.
“The players can choose to be on it, that’s absolutely fine because that’s their individual choice, but I think it’s important that we don’t overly react emotionally to certain things.
“Now, Bruno is a very emotional person and, I think you’ve seen on the pitch, it’s so positive for us, that emotion. He uses it brilliantly, he has used it brilliantly to not just perform well, but build a feeling with the supporters because I think the supporters see how much it means to him. It’s all positive in terms of that feeling that Bruno has, but this is just maybe a little lesson for him.”
Guimaraes is easily, to the naked eye, the most influential Magpies midfielder in more than a decade. But some fans have wondered whether his form has dipped in recent times. Does Howe agree?
He said: “I’d say football is a very strange game.
“I thought he was excellent against Aston Villa and then backed that up in training the next week. So, you go from there, in terms of his performance, to maybe slightly below that at Manchester City. But as a team that was very much the case for us.
“I think Bruno will be so important for us this year. When he plays well, our game goes to a totally different dimension. It’s early days of the season to give a proper evaluation of that — he’s had one very good performance out of two games, and that’s not too bad.”
Like it has with Manchester United and Erik ten Hag, a rivalry seems to be flourishing when it comes to Newcastle United, Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp and Howe. Two action-packed, incident-laden defeats to the Reds last season included touchline battles and bans, disallowed goals, a stoppage-time winner, and a controversial red card for Nick Pope.
Howe said: “I move on quickly from the game in the sense that then you have to prepare the next one, but I think the emotion of the game and the feeling and the memories of the game, they stay with you for some time.
“The memories of last year’s games, they’re with me, I can visualize certain moments, but then you have to detach yourself from that and go, ‘Right, how do we prepare for this one?,’ because whether it’s tactical or whatever the thing is that you think you can do better, it’s about then delivering that to the best of your ability. There’s a lot of defeats in my management career that are still there and they just need probably the emotions stoking and they’ll come back to the forefront of my brain.
“Genuinely, I think the rivalry between Newcastle and Liverpool has always been there historically. I don’t think it’s been ramped up particularly any more than it’s always been. When the game’s been on historically over a number of years it’s a game everyone will go ‘I want to watch that, I want to see what’s going to happen.’ There will be moments and flashpoints because they are two iconic clubs going against each other.”
Meanwhile, Newcastle winger Ryan Fraser has joined Southampton on a season-long loan deal. The 29-year-old made 59 appearances for the Magpies, scoring three goals in all competitions.
The player joined from Bournemouth in September 2020, but leaves after falling out of favor with Howe. The Scotland international had been training with the club’s under-21 side since January.
