Unpopular Opinions #2 - Miley not Bruno. No, Really

Our last unpopular opinion turned out to be actually quite popular! This time, Scott's up, and it's back to our midfield. Prob8solved last season? He thinks not.

You know us by now. You know us lot at True Faith towers are the epitome of contrary and each one of us is planting various little seeds in your head this mid summer to a) keep you on your toes and b) forget about signings / no signings. Seeing as it’s my turn, I should go all in with this, shouldn't I?

How’s about replacing the player who ran 524 miles over the last two seasons (a full 19 more miles than anyone else), has just qualified for the World Cup as a Brazil regular, and is adored by our support.

Yes it's BROOOOOOOOONOOHH! (While we are on the subject don’t make that tannoy announcer do that. It's not him. Just let him continue to play good music and that's it).

That's me not quite done. Not only do you replace Guimarães, BUT….. Here me out with this, but I think to make Newcastle’s midfield that little bit better, I think he should be replaced by a lad who was born the same year as we bought Obafemi Martins and who has played fewer than 40 times for United - Lewis Miley.

There you go. I’m reaching for my tin hat.

Let it be heard, I'm a Bruno fan, but I do think our support tends to verge on fawning over him. If he plays well, it's the best performance this side of Socrates (both the Brazilian and philosopher) and if he plays poorly, it's someone else’s fault. Pre-Christmas it was Longstaff, post cup final Murphy or Gordon.

That's fair enough, he's earned that sort of blandishment since signing from Lyon. In those first 18 months he was on course to be an all time great. His swagger epitomised Newcastle 2.0 and that infamous release clause wasn’t laughed out the house. It was deadly serious.

But people started to find him out a little. The cracks were beginning to appear. I mean, the cracks were not big enough to get the scaffolding up, but you would at least get your builder mate around to give you some advice.

Fast forward to last season and as I mentioned in my season review, we are no further forward to knowing whether Bruno is the best thing since sliced bread or he's holding us back a bit.

The midfield optics have changed dramatically over the last year. The second coming of Tonali has smashed the equilibrium to smithereens and I don't know if Bruno has particularly come out of it well.

We've already had one victim in Longstaff and Willock looks like being left in the contrails too and I suggest the next victim COULD be Bruno.

Look at that midfield. The fit and firing one. The Joelinton, Tonali and Bruno version. It's probably the best in a generation and, yeah, I want to change it.

Tonali is above everyone else there and the dynamic has changed with him. Gone is the player who wants to play just in front of the back four and feed the other two. I wouldn’t put it past him weighing in with ten plus goals next year.

Joelinton has changed that little bit as well. He’s learning to be that marauding box to box juggernaut, but be able to screech the brakes on. Newcastle were a pale shadow of themselves when Joelinton wasn't playing.

When he was, the brick wall created the space for Tonali to probe and pose and he also bypassed Bruno more often than not, whereas early on in the relationship he'd find Bruno almost because he had to.

I remember writing a few years ago that playing with Joelinton was like playing in a band with Jimi Hendrix. Brilliant, but you never quite knew where he was going to go next and you needed that reliable rhythm guitarist to cover up if it all went badly wrong. That WAS Longstaff.

Now I humbly suggest the Jimi Hendrix in our team is no longer Joelinton, it's Bruno. Joelinton no longer needs anyone to hold his hand, but Guimarães, if he's in one of those moods, can border on being, well, maybe liability is a bit strong, but you've got to admit, surely, he made you wince a lot last season if it's not going very well. Rather than be a solution he sometimes added to the problem.

Remember Arsenal away in the league? Remember us losing the plot just after half time? Newcastle collapsed in a heap in midfield. It was chaotic and it cost us the game. Remember who came on and turned the game in our favour again? Yes, it was Lewis Miley.

---

---

The guy was insanely good. Pick up the ball, keep it. Sweep it left, then right. Do the simple stuff. Win tackles and take the game by the scruff of the neck against the Champions League semi finalists. That was the modus operandi. The 19 year old not only did the lot but he excelled in the process.

It was a eureka moment for me.

Miley has been dogged by injuries and illness and the teenager's physicality didn't help what he was trying to do. But he's now a man and he's got the body strength to do what he did against Arsenal. United have a perfect foil for Tonali. He could save us millions.

Because I know how hard up we are, Miley being there would do this. He would do the rhythm guitar role I was talking about earlier and be that midfielder who sat and had the most touches of the ball.

I want to see Miley being the fulcrum in our side. Switching play and bringing a new dimension to United, rather than us sometimes trying something and hoping it comes off. A plan, essentially.

Also whisper it, but Tonali DOES lose possession in games. Bruno isn't winning that ball back. Miley is. Tonali would love having Miley alongside him. Joelinton would be fuming because his mate would be out, but he would come around after Miley nonchalantly played him in.

That would do it.

Miley in the middle of the three like Pirlo, with Tonali breaking and Joelinton doing the Vieria things. Yes, I said Vieria. Don't forget you've got Murphy and Gordon doing all the running. We don't need that much running

But seeing as you asked, as far as the miles, which were mentioned at the start, are concerned, Miley is coming up to twenty and can do that in his sleep. He would be calculated with the running. A big difference.

I also don't think he would cheer a slide tackle like he's won Le Coupe du Monde either. Some might find that as a negative, but for me it's sealed the deal.

It's more leftfield than the song off the Guinness/wild horses advert but I've seen the future and it's from Stanley. Bruno out, Miley in and watch the sparks fly. Can you imagine his face on the bench?

It was proved last season he comes back stronger after the jolt of being dropped. Bruno isn't the be all and end all, sometimes it's nice to remind him of that.

Comments below.

Scott Robson