Sandro Tonali has told his Newcastle teammates they must step up - with or without Bruno
Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali
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Newcastle United have relied upon their inspirational captain Bruno Guimaraes a lot this season - and in previous campaigns.
The lack of games won without the Magpies skipper in the starting line-up has been well recorded but Newcastle showed they could succeed without the Brazilian when they came from behind to defeat Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Saturday night.
With Guimaraes facing around eight weeks on the sidelines, due to a hamstring injury sustained against Tottenham Hotspur, more of the same will be needed.
For a while against Villa, it looked like the curse would strike again. Cometh the hour, however, cometh the man.
Sandro Tonali's form this season has been below his best but he stepped up in sensational style to score twice at Villa Park as he took the game by the scruff of the neck. It wasn't just his performance in front of goal that impressed though, with his all-round game excellent.
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Tonali will need to keep producing those performances in Guimaraes' absence but he has warned his Newcastle teammates that even when their skipper returns, they can't keep over-relying on him to pull them through games. The Magpies need other players to reduce the strain on their leader.
"Bruno is one of our best players; our best player for scoring, the best player for recovery balls - he's key for us, and we miss him, because it's tough when you lost a player for a few weeks, for a long time," Tonali said.
"Bruno will come back in a few weeks. He's a top player for us and we need him.
"Every player here, we take the responsibility for everything - not just until Bruno comes back, but (also) when Bruno comes back we'll take the same responsibility, because we need every player here in this team - and especially Bruno because he's one of the best players at Newcastle."
Tonali, meanwhile, was blown away by the support the players received at Villa Park at the weekend. Newcastle were backed by more than 6,000 travelling fans with the Italian international celebrating wildly with them after his two goals.
"It's crazy. The fans were unbelievable," Tonali admitted. "I don't have words for this, but every away game our fans are the best - really, every game.
"Today was like playing at St James' Park. They pushed us all the 90 minutes and for us it's another player on the pitch. We love to play with these fans, we love to play away games with a lot of fans.
"I want to say thank you to every single person here today."
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