Manchester City bound Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus will be heading to Etihad as a Brasileirao winner after helping his club Palmeiras to their first Brazilian Serie A title since 1994. Jesus was one of the breakthrough players of this year from Brazil and has proved his worth both domestically as well as on the international scene.
The £27 million City new boy, who has one more match as a Palmeiras player left before he begins preparations to join up with the City squad in early 2017. Not only is he now a league champion, but also won a call-up to the Brazil national team, which he has repaid with 4 goals in 6 caps.
Jesus is very versatile, capable of playing all across the frontline. He is tactically flexible enough to either play down from the wide areas (left/right) stretching the play before drifting into the middle to link up with team-mates and embark on jinking runs or playing through the middle, where his movement and footwork help create space for team-mates and bring others into play.
A superb athlete possessing blistering pace, Jesus is a fine finisher who can dribble past his opponents with relative ease just like many of his fellow Brazilians. However, the thing that makes the 19-year-old stand out from the others is his decision making and intelligence. Gabriel Jesus knows when to play a pass as he rarely over-elaborates his dribbling. A team player who also contributes to the defensive work, the 19-year-old is, by all means, a truly rare breed of Brazilian forward.
Nevertheless, with all those aforementioned attributes and qualities, we all know that the Premier League is an entirely different beast to tame and Pep Guardiola won’t be using the player right from the outset. The Palmeiras attacker will very much play a bit part role at least for a season and a half from his arrival to the British Isles.
We would be seeing some cameos in the Premier league with a possibility of starts in the cup games. Manchester City does have an exceptionally strong squad with wonderful options available to them. The inclusion of the 19-year-old Brazilian would add one more option in the forward areas for the City manager.
Gabriel Jesus will definitely improve further under the guidance of Guardiola at the Etihad and in due time when he gets fully settled, he will be one of the standout players for the Citizens. However, in order for that to happen we would need to give the young attacker some time as putting too much pressure on his shoulders too early would definitely be a mistake.
