JOHN GIBSON

Team and boss are not doing best

THERE is a great debate amongst Newcastle United’s downtrodden fans.

It is this: are United as a squad better than the club’s dreadful position in the Premier League?

In other words, are Steve Bruce and his coaching staff failing to get the best out of a half-decent set of players or are the players truly as bad as their current standing?

Well, let us say right off that no one escapes a degree of blame.

However, it must firstly be said Bruce and his sidekicks are falling well short of setting standards. Results pass sentence on that. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: too many players have gone backwards rather than improved. Just look at Jamaal Lascelles, Sean Longstaff, Miguel Almiron and Jamal Lewis.

Dwight Gayle has been ignored, just as Matty Longstaff was and Andy Carroll before him. Ryan Fraser is lost in no man’s land. Jeff Hendrick has been a bad signing. Joelinton has not learned a single thing. Only Allan Saintmaximin has improved and is the one shining light in a blackened room.

The inescapable feeling is that the current squad with all their limitations should be able to be organised tactically a lot better than they appear to be.

It is generally accepted that the negative side of things is easier to coach than the positive – stopping teams playing as opposed to having enough creativity and street cred to manufacture victories.

However, Newcastle have not even been able to spoil anyone’s party so far. A whopping 13 goals have been leaked in five Premier League matches, which is the worst record in the whole of the division bar Norwich City, who have conceded one more in losing all their five games. You would think Bruce, once a top-ofthe-line centrehalf, would be able to close the back door after two years of trying. He should be closer to getting “the balance” right, as he repeatedly tells us he is striving to do. He is right on one thing – like it or not, the buck always stops with the manager. It is a fact of life he has to live with and if that means once again examining the coaching staff around him as well as himself, so be it.

Mike Ashley must carry the biggest slice of the blame for what Newcastle United have become but, having said that, a manager cannot hide totally behind an incompetent owner.

Chris Hughton and Rafa Benitez still managed to find a significant degree of organisation that brought limited results and certainly fan acceptance.

There are other factors. The legs of some have been eroded by age and those who have suffered have not been replaced. Others never possessed any pace but are now further exposed by those who have been selected around them failing to cover deficiencies.

The heart of the defence and central midfield are two obvious areas of concern where United can get overrun.

Finally, United’s transfer policy has been awful. Ashley has steadfastly refused to invest of late but when players have been signed, as often as not, they have been well short of what is required.

For every Callum Wilson and Saint-maximin there has been Hendrick, Lewis, Joelinton and, yes, Fraser so far.

Even Wilson comes with limitations, of course. As good as he is, he has an unfortunate injury history. Having ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in both knees, he has since never managed to be a consistent name on his club’s team sheet.

Conclusion? An awful lot of mistakes have been made and vast improvement required from those who perform on the pitch and by its side.

As a former top-class centre-half, Steve Bruce should be more on top of United’s defensive problems, says John Gibson; inset, Allan Saint-maximin is United’s only improved player under Bruce