Bruna learns key lessons with Albion on loan deal from Barcelona

Bruna Vilamala showed Albion fans her exciting attacking skills in a big midweek League Cup win.

But the message from both her head coach and the team-mate who knows her best is she can only increase her impact as the season on loan from Barcelona continues.

The Spain international, who pops up in dangerous attacking spaces and has a great touch on the ball, chipped home a measured finish to kick-start the 6-2 League Cup win over Bristol City.

She later went close from outside the box, hit the bar and added a couple of assists, the second in a really nice combination with Nikita Parris.

We have only seen fleeting examples of what the 22-year-old – often listed as Vilamala but who prefers to be known simply as Bruna – can do.

But they have been exciting. And she has a winning goal away to Crystal Palace on her record.

Albion head coach Dario Vidosic said: “Coming from Barcelona where they largely dominate everything in their league, and her minutes were probably limited there a bit as well, coming to the WSL and adapting to the league and to our style and the physical side, which I think is probably the biggest one, there are times when the game is probably a little bit bigger.

“Teams especially against Barca will just drop off.

“I think they play in the opposition half basically the whole game.

“It has been an adaptation period and she is building, she is getting good minutes and we expect her to get better and better.

“Her technical ability, we don’t have to talk about that.

“It is just learning about that physical nature and the running.

“It is all new because of the demands of this league.

“She is a young player, she is playing many minutes and she is important for us.”

Former Barcelona midfielder Vicky Losada is ideally placed to know what Bruna is going through.

Speaking after she had shone in the recent 1-0 win over Leicester, Losada said that game had been Bruna best to date for the Seagulls.

The captain added: “She looked comfortable between the lines.

“Her way of carrying the ball is massive for us.

“It is not easy to come here to the WSL and play because it is really physical.

“The first games, we had a few conversations that sometimes it was taking her a bit longer to understand what Dario wants.

“When you play for Barca for a long time, you just see that way and it is just part of her adaptation.

“I think she is very intelligent so she can read spaces.

“You don’t need to coach here on that aspect.

“I think when she gets even more used to this, we will be seeing her closer to the box and probably scoring goals because her shooting is amazing.

“I am sure she will have more chance to show the player she is.”

Vidosic still has injury problems as Tottenham visit the Broadfield Stadium today (5.30pm) although Kiko Seike returns.

But he thought the win over Bristol City will have benefited some of his players as he managed minutes.

He said: “As a player you always want to play.

“I don’t there will be any issue to get everyone ready for Saturday.

“We know it is the last game we will have in this part of the season.

“We have had a good week so far.

“We probably could have warranted a little bit more against Chelsea, we were a bit unfortunate there as well.

“We have put ourselves into the next round of the League Cup, which is something we have set out to do.

“We get to finish off against a terrific opponent in Tottenham at home and we are really looking forward to it.”