Tim Vickery is the BBC’s South American football expert, a man who impressed us all during the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 with his detailed knowledge of Latin American players and infectious enthusiasm for the game.
Who better, then, to give us the inside track on new City forward Gabriel Jesus? What follows is an extract from a long conversation between Tim and Club journalist Rob Pollard
What have you made of Gabriel Jesus since he burst onto the scene at Palmeiras? His rise has been swift, hasn’t it?
Yeah, it has. It was a risk when Brazil’s new coach Tite decided to go with Gabriel Jesus as his centre-forward in September. That was a big risk because Brazil at that point were sixth in World Cup qualification.
That was a big chance to take and it’s paid off in remarkable style. Brazil have put together six victories, which means they’re virtually qualified already. Gabriel Jesus has scored five goals in those six games and he’s set goals up as well. The risk has really, really paid off.
He’s a very talented player, Gabriel Jesus, who is a versatile talent as well. He can play as a centre-forward, as he has been for Brazil, and he can play wide on the left cutting onto his stronger right foot, which is where I imagine Pep Guardiola would like to use him, that’s certainly where I imagine he’ll use him at Manchester City.
He has the great gift of being able to improvise at pace. When he’s full of confidence, he can be a real sight to behold.
But he is very young – so it’s going to be fascinating to see how the person deals with the challenges in the months ahead. The player has all the talent necessary.
What will be the biggest challenge for him making the step up to the Premier League?
I don’t think it’s just the physicality, I think it’s also the speed at which the game takes place. There’s much less space than there is in South American football where the defensive line tends to play very deep and there’s more space for somebody like him to pick the ball up and run at defenders.
He won’t have that space, which means the time for decision-making is shorter, so that’s a mental adaptation that has to take place.
There’s also the temperature. It’s a cruel time to move, it really is. It’s much easier if a player moves there in our winter, your summer. To swap 35 degrees for whatever Manchester is at the moment, where it’s dark by 4 o’clock, that’s a difficult one.
But perhaps the most difficult challenges will be mental. He might struggle with the different criteria for referees in England – in Brazil almost everything is a foul. So that’s something he’s got to adapt to.
Off the pitch he’s got to adapt to life in another country.
He said the phone call from Pep Guardiola was key in swaying his decision. Do you think he is the right manager for Jesus?
Absolutely the right manager for him. I spoke not too long ago with Douglas Costa, and he just raved about working with Guardiola, about how much he encouraged him.
He is an attacking coach and he loves strikers who can attack from wide positions. When Gabriel Jesus first got into the Palmeiras side, he wasn’t playing as a centre-forward. He was playing as a wide striker. But that involved a lot of chasing back after the opposing full-back.
It changed for him when a new coach [Cuca] took over at Palmeiras and played him at centre-forward, where he didn’t have to bother with chasing back. That was a big change.
I think Guardiola will fix his side in a way that will see Gabriel Jesus attack from a wide position, without having too many defensive responsibilities.
Because defences in England play much higher, there won’t be as much space that he will need to cover and keep running back 50, 60 yards.
With Guardiola, there’s an emphasis on strikers attacking wide areas. A lot of what Guardiola has done historically has been about having control of possession in the centre of their field in order to create the one-against-one situation on the flanks.
I think Gabriel Jesus fits really nicely into that.
What did you make of his decision to stay with Palmeiras until the end of the Brazilian league season? It seems from the outside like it was smart because he played a key role in their title win and got valuable playing time.
He was very important. He was voted best player in the league – he was without doubt the quality act in the championship.
It ended up working very well for him because when the new Brazil coach, Tite, made that decision to go with Gabriel Jesus at centre-forward, there was another candidate: Gabriel Barbosa [Gabigol]. It was really close between them.
In the summer, Gabigol left Santos to join Inter Milan.
But what’s happened subsequently is Gabigol hasn’t got onto the field and his momentum has been totally interrupted, whereas Gabriel Jesus stayed at Palmeiras and played every game and picked up a winners’ medal, which is good for his morale, and picked up a best player in the Brazilian championship medal.
He’s now able to travel to Man City with the kudos of being Brazil’s new centre-forward and that will earn him respect in the dressing room.
One of the most remarkable aspects of this story came in November when Brazil beat Argentina 3-0. There was a gorgeous little reverse ball from Gabriel Jesus that slipped in Neymar to score the second goal in Brazil’s 3-0 victory. Now, who did Jesus cut out of the game with that lovely little reverse ball? Nicolas Otamendi and Pablo Zabaleta, his new team-mates at Manchester City.
They’ve already seen what he can do so he goes there with their respect.
Is he the best young south American talent?
City have probably signed both of them, with Marlos Moreno who went there in the summer and has been loaned to La Coruna. So I think you’ve probably got both of them, congratulations!
Let’s just say he settles well and Guardiola finds the right system that allows him to flourish: what can Gabriel Jesus achieve in the game?
He’s really, really promising, and still developing as well. His left foot isn’t great and his heading isn’t great – but they’re both getting better.
He’s shown so much at Palmeiras. He’s shown the capacity to drop deep and link the play, as well as lead the line. He’s a versatile talent and I’ve got high hopes of him.
I would hope Gabriel Jesus has all the talent needed to make that step up and make a name for himself at City but there are no guarantees.
I can’t see him at centre-forward straight away but maybe in the long term. I see him cutting in from the left.
It’s been a remarkable story, hasn’t it? His rise from playing varzea football to becoming the most-wanted player in South America.
He was a consistent goalscorer for Palmeiras’s youth side and a lot of Palmeiras fans would go and watch the youth team, which they wouldn’t normally do, just because of him.
So there was a huge expectation created around him, even before he made his first-team debut for Palmeiras.
But it has been a rapid rise – it’s been less than two years since he made his senior debut and here he is Brazil’s centre-forward and playing for City.
It has all happened very, very quickly.
Tim Vickery is the South American football correspondent for the BBC. You can follow him on Twitter: @Tim_Vickery
