Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has admitted he didn’t sign Bruno Guimaraes to score goals after seeing him pick up a dramatic win over Leicester.
The 24-year-old Brazil international canceled out Ademola Lookman’s opening goal with his second goal for the club before sealing a 2-1 victory with his third in the fifth minute of stoppage time to leave the Magpies 12 points behind in the table. relegation zone.
Howe said: “Goals weren’t necessarily one of the areas where we felt he would improve us as a team, but he has, he has scored some key goals for us.
“I am very, very happy with him today. I think he was magnificent in all aspects, especially out of possession because today we struggled to control the ball during long periods of the game, so our defensive form had to be very good and partly because of our three midfielders there. , he was very good.”
Guimaraes could eventually cost the Magpies more than £40m following his January move from Lyon, but he has already established himself as a cult hero on Tyneside.
Howe said: “He’s an incredibly passionate person, I love that about him. He cares a lot if we win or lose and again I love that about him because you need players who wear their hearts on their sleeves and are ready to give you their all on the pitch.
“It certainly is one of those.”
The win was Newcastle’s fifth in a row at St James’ Park and although How insists there is still work to be done, their celebrations after Guimaraes headed home substitute Joe Willock’s wide cross in the death told their own story.
Asked if they were the wildest yet, the 44-year-old said: “I’m not much of a party animal. I feel it inside, believe me. It all stays there because that’s just my personality, I can’t let it spill over.
“It probably is, but I don’t think it was wild in any way. He is still very content considering the importance of the goal and the timing of it.
“But in my way, that was pretty outlandish.”
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers was left to ponder one that slipped away after seeing his much-changed side dominate possession for long periods, but failed to make it worth his while.
He said: “Sometimes you don’t always get what you deserve in football, and I think that was the case today.
“I think we played very well in the game from a performance perspective. The second half, it was a case of controlling the game and for much of it, we did it and looked like a real threat.
“I would have thought Eddie would be happy with a point probably at the end, but for whatever reason, we failed to control the ball right at the end of the game and if you don’t control the ball, you can.” You don’t control the game.
“We went straight with him and on the last shot of the game they break away and score, so we’re very disappointed in the outcome, but a lot of the performance was very, very good and that’s what we’ll take from the game.”
