'I'm at my level': Bruno Guimaraes now admits his performances earlier this season weren't great

Not so long ago Bruno Guimaraes fell into the social media troll trap and clapped back at a fan criticising the team after a poor performance.

While that fan has every right to express himself, there weren't many fans who agreed with his statement at the time but one man who really didn't like what was said was Bruno Guimaraes who posted a response calling out the fan for being too critical - the post by Bruno was swiftly deleted, do doubt after a call from the club's social media team.

But now, Bruno Guimaraes has admitted that he didn't get off to the best of starts this season but he feels he's back to where he needs to be now.

Bruno played through the pain for three or four months last season

The revelation came during the interview with Andy Kerr for NUFC TV when Kerr asked Bruno about his ankle.

Guimaraes played through the pain last season playing with an ankle injury towards the back end of the season in a desperate attempt to get Newcastle into a coveted top-four Premier League spot to bring Champions League football back to St James' Park.

“Yeah, it’s absolutely fine. Last season I played many, many games with pain, but nowadays it’s very good. I think my performances are up again, I’m not playing with pain, I was playing with pain for three or four months, I came back before I should to help the team. I have no regrets it was good, it was an unbelievable season.

“The pain was very hard for me, I enjoyed my holidays, doing nothing. My start of the season was low but now I think I’m at my level.”

Our form really suffers when Bruno isn't in the team

We've definitely noticed an upturn in Bruno's performances of late which is ideal because when he goes down, the team goes down with him. Newcastle's record without Bruno in the side is not great, something which was also addressed in the interview.

“Yeah it’s true. Not because of me, of course. I know I am a good part of the team, that makes me happy, but otherwise, we have to find some things when I’m not playing. The team is not just Bruno and everyone knows it.”

We are definitely not a one-man team, that's clear by the astonishing effort all the players put in, but it is odd just how differently we play without Bruno in the side and that's definitely something that needs addressing.

That won't be easy to do right now given the lack of fit players, but it's something to look at going forward.