Arsenal’s Brazilian midfielder has admitted his penalty technique does not work and he is changing it, after two costly misses in four months, while making it clear that his clash with Alexis Mac Allister at Anfield was nothing out of the ordinary.
Bruno Guimarães has had quite a week. On Tuesday he missed in the shootout as Arsenal were knocked out of the League Cup by League Two Fleetwood Town. Five days later he put in an excellent performance as the Gunners won 1-0 at Anfield to stay top of the Premier League.
Speaking to ESPN Brazil, the former Newcastle man talked about both: the penalty that went wrong, and the afternoon on Merseyside when he refused to back down.
He was honest about the first and defiant about the second, which is about as good a summary of his week as you will get.
Why is Bruno Guimarães changing his penalty technique?
Because he has seen the same kick fail twice. The miss at Fleetwood was painfully similar to his miss against Norway at the World Cup in July. Both shots went at roughly the same height and towards the goalkeeper’s left.
Guimarães told ESPN Brazil: “I was trying to take them in a certain way. I tried it at the World Cup and I tried it here, and I’ve already seen that it doesn’t work. I’m humble enough to recognise that I need to improve, that I need to change the way I take them.”
He was quick to add that one bad spell does not define him. “But one thing is clear to me: this doesn’t change the player I am or the person I am. My record before the World Cup was very good, and in these last few attempts I haven’t delivered what was expected.”
That record backs him up. Before the miss against Norway, he had scored seven of his eight career penalties. Now he has missed two in quick succession, and both came in knockout football, where there is no second chance.
Will he keep taking them?
Yes. He is not hiding from the job, he just wants to do it differently. “It’s something I need to work on, to practise differently. The challenges don’t stop, and if I let this get to me, I’ll only go downhill. I have to turn this around, learn and mature from my mistakes. I’ve already made up my mind that I shouldn’t carry on taking penalties the way I was.”
The work has already started. “I take three or four penalties a day,” he said. “It’s something I want to prepare for, so that if it happens again, I don’t let my teammates down. Messi and Mbappé missed penalties at the World Cup. Nobody likes it when that happens. What I have to do is work harder so that when another opportunity comes, I can step up and not miss.”
For Gooners still sore about the shootout defeat at Fleetwood, that is the right answer. A player who changes nothing after two identical misses is a worry. One who spots the pattern and fixes it is not.
Bruno Guimarães and Mac Allister at Anfield
Sunday gave him a very different chance to show his character. Arsenal won a fiercely contested game at Liverpool 1-0, and Guimarães was outstanding without the ball, helping to protect the lead through a difficult afternoon.
There were plenty of arguments along the way, and one of the flashpoints was his confrontation with Mac Allister. Guimarães shrugged it off as part of the fixture.
“It’s always like that when we play against each other,” he said. “We try to get into the opponent’s head. It’s part of football. But I’ll never bow my head to anyone.”
You could see that in how he played. Liverpool made it a difficult afternoon, and the 1-0 win that ended a 14-year wait owed plenty to the way he stood up to it in the middle of the park.
Verdict: the right reaction from Arsenal’s midfield enforcer
Some players go quiet after a costly miss. Guimarães did the opposite. He owned the penalty, explained exactly what went wrong and said what he is doing about it, then went to Anfield and refused to give an inch.
A painful cup exit was followed a few days later by a win at Anfield that kept the champions top, and that is not a bad way to put a difficult week behind you. There is more to come before the international break too, with Slavia Prague and Hull up next before he joins up with Brazil for their November trip to Singapore.
As for the penalties, the next one he takes will tell us whether the new technique works. On this evidence, he will not be short of nerve when it comes.
