TOON TIDE HAS TURNED
Wasteful and witless in possession, Bruce’s Newcastle are trapped in a joyless cycle of defeats and despair
Some fans admit they want their team to lose to bring about change
FOR 17 months, Steve Bruce has been insulated from criticism by decent enough results. There has been protection, too, from former managers and players beyond the North East, often associates of the Newcastle boss or simply too lazy to analyse anything past the scoreline.
Not now. Not after a week in which they took one fortunate point from matches against Leeds and Fulham and were beaten by Brentford’s second string in a Carabao Cup quarter-final.
With results turning, Bruce has become exposed to wider inspection. Performances, it must be said, have not changed. They have been the same for pretty much the entirety of his time at the club: no clear strategy, wasteful and witless in possession and reliant on a very good goalkeeper.
But, to his credit, Bruce has got by. His players have always found the resolve to chisel a way out of trouble, just when it looked like the walls were closing in on their manager.
Beyond that, though, what is there? Identity? Pattern? Call it what you like, Newcastle have been completely lacking in any notion of methodology. They survived last season on a winger — Allan Saint-Maximin — and a prayer, defying logic to take points when they had no rational right to do so.
Perhaps that was also thanks to intangibles such as spirit, grit and fortune. When those things fade, the failings are apparent.
Rafa Benitez used the short blanket analogy — you attack or defend, there is not enough material to cover both. Bruce’s Newcastle, however, are stripped naked right now, their shortcomings laid bare at both ends of the pitch. Callum Wilson and Karl Darlow apart, every player is under-performing.
The body language of several betrays their own frustration. For while Benitez was right to suggest that pragmatism was necessary, there is also a myth that this squad lacks talent. Bruce said this week that they ‘lack quality’ and ‘give the ball away cheaply’.
Is it not the manager’s job, then, to change that? He has spent £100million on new players, yet still you wonder what he is trying to achieve with them. And there are good players to work with. It is wrong to suggest, as some do, that Bruce is making the best of a bad bunch. His public utterances about their limitations are misleading and hardly conducive to motivating his team.
He has had long enough to establish a style that players and supporters can invest in. Instead they have survived week by week, trapped in a joyless cycle of defeats and despair followed by a grimace of resilience to keep the wolf away from the door.
For even if you have 30 per cent possession and concede more than 20 shots but nick a 1-1 draw, scrutiny is deflected. Only two numbers count at the end of 90 minutes, we are told.
Such results, though, always felt unsustainable. Any outlet which labelled Brentford’s 1-0 victory as a ‘shock’ has not been watching Newcastle closely enough. This was no surprise to supporters and seasoned observers.
And here is something rather depressing — many fans now openly admit to wanting their side to lose. The reason? To validate their opinion of the manager and challenge the insistence of outsiders that they have nothing to complain about. They also hope it will bring about change.
Will that happen? There is little appetite from the hierarchy to remove Bruce. For what they want, he has done a decent job so far. They have also long since proven themselves deaf to the wishes of supporters.
Relegation would have to become a real possibility for the powers that be at St James’ Park to be woken from their slumber. Maybe the results and criticism of the past week will cause Mike Ashley and Lee Charnley to stir.
For it feels like the tide has turned, and Newcastle are being sucked in the wrong direction.