Boss rejects criticism of tactical plan

STEVE Bruce has defended the ultra-conservative tactics used in the defeat by Sheffield United, saying he ‘wanted to see if something different would work’.

Even with five men in defence against the Premier League’s worst attack, the Magpies were tormented by a Blades side that had previously not won a league match in six months.

However, Bruce also said he wanted to stick with the tactical setup that had seen Newcastle fail to win any of their previous seven games before Tuesday’s embarrassment.

The head coach seemed to disagree with the suggestion his team was too defensive, even though his side were on the back foot the entire game.

Bruce also said he thought playing Ryan Fraser – who was sent off before half-time – and Sean Longstaff as ‘false number 10s’ would be the answer to United’s attacking woes.

When asked about tactics, Bruce said: “Too defensive in the approach? Well we have played the same sort of way and I have changed the personnel at the top end of the pitch to try to give us something a little bit different because we haven’t scored enough or created enough.

“That was my thinking, playing Ryan Fraser and Sean Longstaff as two false number 10s instead of Miguel Almiron and [Joelinton].

“Of course, because of the games we’ve had I tried to pick a team with a certain freshness.

“I wanted to see if something different would work.

“In hindsight what I needed was to get in at half-time to change things around but unfortunately the red card put pay to that.”

Meanwhile, Karl Darlow said United were nowhere near good enough and said the players can have no excuses.

The goalkeeper, who was beaten by a Billy Sharp penalty, said: “Performance-wise we were nowhere near. We didn’t get going, they played the better football before the red card.

“We need to sort that out. There can be no excuses.

“We need to come here and do the business. Talk is cheap, we need to show more on the pitch that the fans can be proud of. It’s back to the drawing board.

“We needed to put more pressure on, they were fighting for their lives.

“We haven’t delivered what we said in the changing room, on the training pitch. We didn’t get hold of the ball.”