To date, a large part of the story of Gabriel Jesus’ career is of two World Cups that didn’t quite go as he wanted them to. This is true of a selection of mainstay Brazilian players, having not won the World Cup since 2002, even the best players of the intervening years- Neymar, Thiago Silva, Marcelo- are viewed a little lukewarmly in their own country.
In the build-up to the 2018 World Cup, Jesus was Brazil’s golden boy. He ended a decade long search for an elite number 9 in a post Ronaldo era and his work ethic was the perfect foil to Neymar’s powerful but graceful dribbling. The problem is that when it came to the 2018 World Cup in Brazil, the Selecao suffered a few key injuries and Neymar suffered an ego attack and went rogue on a number of the tactical principles that had restored their form under Tite.
It meant Jesus did not score a goal as Brazil tumbled out at the quarter-final stage against Belgium and no amount of context or nuance really matters in that scenario. If you are Brazil’s centre-forward and you don’t score and Brazil don’t win the World Cup, you are going to feel the brunt of that.
What followed revealed Jesus as a sensitive character (I don’t say this pejoratively). Initially he hit back at the criticism he received, which made things worse. The player lost confidence and he stopped playing upfront, preferring instead to fall into the carousel of wide forwards at Manchester City and Brazil.
‘After the World Cup I still thought a lot, it was my most difficult moment as a player,’ he admitted on reflection in early 2019. After the backlash to his initial distaste for the criticism he received, he struck a more conciliatory tone. ‘As a supporter, I would not like a Brazil number nine to not score. I did not have a good time at work, it happens to everyone.’
In the same interview, we could see the criticism rankled still and he admitted, ‘scoring goals is not my strong point.’ In the 2019 Copa America Final Jesus played like a man possessed. It reminded me of a game I watched him play for Palmeiras as an 18 year old, in a hostile away game at Rosario Central.
Palmeiras had to win to progress from the group. Jesus played like a hurricane and scored twice. But. Then he was sent off as his emotion boiled over. In the 2019 Copa America Final for Brazil against Peru, he scored one, assisted another, was sent off, kicked the VAR camera over on his way off the pitch and cried hysterically in the tunnel. The scars of the 2018 World Cup were both fuel and fire.
That desire to make amends for the 2018 World Cup saw him go to the 2022 World Cup and exacerbate a knee injury, which has drawn a very distinct before and after line on his Arsenal career. Now he has seen his number 9 dream at Arsenal, not exactly disintegrate, but fade as Kai Havertz has become the team’s super confident focal point.
Havertz knows what it’s like to suffer a crisis of confidence, to maybe not know exactly what his best position is and to wonder whether his early career potential might be lost to the brutal grind of elite football. As Jesus’ star has waned, Havertz’s has shone. His equaliser on Saturday against Southampton had an emphasis to it that this player did not seem to be capable of a year ago.
‘The secret to make Havertz perform at the best level is love,’ Arteta said this week. ‘He’s a player that needs a lot of love. He needs to feel protected, he needs to feel chemistry around him. In football and in life he gives so much to everybody. He needs that connection.’
Increasingly Havertz is beginning to look like another one of those excellent ‘distressed asset’ signings for Arsenal, as the love grows so too does his confidence but, given he plays in the position Gabriel Jesus was bought for, the Brazilian is experiencing the inverse effect. His effort is still there, but another muscular injury in pre-season has taken some of his sharpness and, in his desire to impress, he is overcomplicating situations.
This is distant, amateur pop psychology of course, but I don’t think Gabriel Jesus needs to feel love, per se. I think he has a tendency to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. When he couldn’t dislodge Aguero at Manchester City, he talked a lot about how unhappy it made him to know he could score a hat-trick in a game and know it probably wouldn’t be enough to get a run as City’s number 9.
I am not convinced Jesus needs an arm around the shoulder per se, I think his is more of an internal struggle. He needs to love himself and not to allow his doubts to lay their little eggs in his brain. His body continually failing him cannot he helping. This summer he opted not to go to the Copa America to work on his fitness, he enjoyed a strong pre-season with Arsenal before a muscle twang robbed him of his progress.
It remains to be seen what the long-term future holds for Gabriel Jesus at Arsenal. This season, Arsenal are going to need him, however expansive that role is. When he left Manchester City, Guardiola purred, ‘If you play him for five minutes, he gives you the best five minutes of his whole life.’ And maybe therein lies the rub, maybe he needs to relax a little, just for a short while…
