Have doubts whether Pep Guardiola’s tactical system is right for Gabriel Jesus, proclaims Ze Roberto
Former Bayern Munich star Ze Roberto believes that Gabriel Jesus needs to figure out his place in Pep Guardiola’s system or the Brazilian risks his chance at a good performance in the 2022 World Cup. The forward has struggled to find the net this season with him netting just eight league goals.
With Sergio Aguero out injured and Gabriel Jesus struggling for form, it has seen Pep Guardiola shift his system about to encoporate the lack of strikers in his squad. That has allowed the likes of Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez and co to thrive but it has affected Jesus with the forward struggling to get into the team. He has started only 19 league games this season and it has affected the 24-year-old’s confidence with him netting just 13 times across all competitions.
That is a massive drop off as compared to Jesus’ performances in the past and it has many concerned for the forward’s future, with Ze Roberto amongst them. The former Brazil international admitted that given the quality available, Gabriel Jesus is unlikely to get the good run of games that he needs to get his confidence back. Roberto also added that the forward needs to figure things out or risk his performances at the 2022 World Cup.
"Guardiola is a coach that likes to experiment with lots of options, given the quality players that he has, so as a consequence Gabriel Jesus ends up lacking a run of games. And he is a player who needs to have a run of games," Roberto said, reported Goal.
"Attacking players need game time otherwise they end up losing their confidence. And a player suffering from a lack of confidence sometimes starts to see a dip in his performance. I think Gabriel Jesus needs to perform better and I think he needs to score more goals in total.
“So I have doubts whether Guardiola's recent tactical system is the right one for Gabriel Jesus. I think that Gabriel Jesus needs to know how his season will be and how the next one will be. Why? Because there's a World Cup next year."