Rui Borges made a point of highlighting Luis Guilherme’s versatility when the former West Ham United winger completed his £17 million move to Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon during the January transfer window.
Head coach Rui Borges explained Guilherme’s arrival – the eleventh-most expensive signing in Sporting’s history – by detaling the flexibility he brings to the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
The Brazilian made his name at Palmeiras marauding down the right-hand side. However, Guilherme was never going to oust Jarrod Bowen at West Ham United, meaning those rare first-team minutes often came on the left-hand flank.
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One position the teenager is less familiar in though, is full-back.
Guilherme did enjoy a brief run-out against Everton in pre-season as a wing-back. But, as Sporting left it late to beat Arouca on his second start in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, he would spend some of the game wide on the left flank, other moments on the right, and he could even be spotted popping up in central areas depending on the game state and what Sporting needed from him at that moment.
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Guilherme will have a fight on his hands nailing down his preferred right-wing role in the Portuguese capital. Geny Catamo scored two brilliant goals from that flank on Guilherme’s league debut. Francisco Trincao, the former Wolves and Barcelona trickster, also likes to cut in from the right.
However, the more Rui Borges learns about him, the more positions he is able to play, the more game time he should receive.
“Luis is a very talented young player. Even though we’ve already identified him and know what he’s capable of, we’re all learning here; him, the team, his team,” Borges told reporters after Sporting moved to within four points of FC Porto before the leaders host a Pablo Felipe-deprived Gil Vicente on Monday night.
“Given the absences, we thought the left-back position could be the solution for him for now.
He’s someone who can play on the left, on the right, but also centrally. We tried to adjust there because initially he was doing well in the central area, but he was too deep, and Trincao understands those zones better than Luis Guilherme.”
Guilherme would move wide, with Trincao taking over in the number ten spot.
“That’s how the goal ended up happening,” the coach adds, Sporting opening the scoring through ex-Watford striker Luis Suarez. “Because [Guilherme] was dropping too deep, whoever was marking him wasn’t keeping up.
“And Trincao, at the moment of the goal, is higher up. He’s holding up the full-back. In terms of drawing defenders in, a metre makes all the difference, and Trincao has better awareness because he’s more involved in those positions.
“We tried to change things up a bit in that sense and gave Luis Guilherme more freedom. At half-time we went back to normal and even gave Luis Guilherme more width. And for me, he had a superb second half.
“There you have it. It’s a mutual understanding that we’re developing and realising what each of us brings to the table.”
Crysencio Summerville and Jarrod Bowen kept Guilherme out
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Guilherme was unlucky, really, that the positions in which he felt most comfortable were all held down under lock and key at the London Stadium. Bowen on the right, Lucas Paqueta as the ten. And in a month when he brought an end to that year-and-a-half long spell at West Ham, Crysencio Summerville has been a man transformed by Nuno.
Three goals in three for Summerville, after 25 games without one.
Even if the head coach had considered Guilherme to be an option at left-back or left-wing back, Nuno now faces a difficult choice between Malick Diouf and Ollie Scarles.
Diouf is back, having helped Senegal win the Africa Cup of Nations. He might be hard pushed strolling back into the starting XI, though. Reigning Young Hammer of the Year Scarles ‘delighted Nuno’ in Diouf’s absence, with a series of ever-improving performances.
“[Diouf] is now in the history books of football, and it’s good to have him back. He gives us more options, gives us more energy. It [AFCON] was a spell that we didn’t have our full-backs here,” Nuno said after the 3-1 win over Sunderland.
“So we asked a lot of Kyle [Walker-Peters] and Ollie. And now we have more options, more energy.”
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