Another Monday morning, another sitting down to dissect and write about Newcastle United. God it’s a hard slog at times. It’s getting harder and harder to find positives, and indeed hope at the moment.
Now on the face of it, a draw against Wolves isn’t the end of the world. The manner of the performance and how inevitable it all is what is so spirit sapping.
For all his talk, Steve Bruce doesn’t seem to have a clue how to change things, and speaking to Matthew Raisbeck from BBC Newcastle, our head coach made more concerning comments:
“I was delighted with the way we’ve played in the first half – it’s, arguably, as good as we’ve played here.
“We needed exactly the same (in the second half) and to get the second goal. Unfortunately, we went far too deep and didn’t do enough with the ball.”
One criticism I’ve heard of Newcastle fans is that we dissect and jump on Bruce’s every word, but didn’t give Benitez the same scrutiny. I’m certainly guilty of that and I’m about to do it again, with good reason.
He isn’t wrong for the most part, but delighted? Honestly did any fan feel “delighted” with the first half? We couldn’t get the ball off them in the first 20 minutes and we created nothing, thankfully neither did Wolves with all their possession. We started to push forward a little more, scored and had a very good end to the first half.
Then the second half was absolutely woeful, but Bruce just seemed to stand there and accept it. Time and time again Wolves attacked down our left, it was so obvious that’s where they would find joy but lack of guidance and leadership from the touch line is just blindingly obvious. The substitutions? Anyone?
Perhaps I’m still too irked by his interview with Jeff Stelling about him deserving respect from us. You have to earn it Brucey, and so far you’re falling way short.
Bruce has got no chance to make a success of the job, nobody wants him to succeed he may as well leave now because the bloke will ultimately fail. Even if he does a Rafa and keeps them up he will still be berated. Rafa could do no wrong and Bruce can do no right.
David Graham(Quote)
Steve Bruce – until fatty sacks me I am staying, so get used to watching what I put out on the field and shut up
If your not happy stop coming to the games so I can once again blame you the supporters for not backing the team
But berry up I like to go on my holidays in February
Davidp(Quote)
The predictability is painful. Leicester scored 9 on Friday, we won’t score 9 between now and Xmas. Answers and ideas on a post card please asap. We’re doomed.
Gypsyjohn(Quote)
Jamie – I don’t know if you are a journalist, blogger or part time article writer for this blog.
But when you openly admit that Rafa could say what he wanted and get away with it, but you will jump on every word Brucey says – it does make it difficult to take the rest seriously I’m afraid.
I suspect Bruce was talking about the last 15/20mins of the first half – and we were very good.
But I agree, we started very slowly – Bruce probably agrees too, but we didn’t concede and saw that period out and improved.
The second half was awful, and Bruce didn’t react to the changes Wolves made.
Sharpy17(Quote)
In your article Jamie, you stated the problem quite cleary – basically no matter what Bruce does you’re going to pick him to bits because he’s not Rafa.
Personally, having watched every minute of football this season I see no difference from the way we played last season, just everything seems a little better.
We had an equally tough start, goal difference is the same but we’re 2 places above where we were this time last season with Rafa and we’ve got 3 times as many points.
I think rather than this anti-Ashley bandwagonism where everything is slagged off for the sake of it, its about time we looked at the bloggers and asked “what is your problem?”
Under Rafa we couldn’t get the ball off the opposition, we averaged only twenty odd percent possession, played with a back 9 and had games with no shots on target.
Surprise surprise! Under Bruce its the same but he’s doing better with it, with more points and a higher league position.
Yes he often seems bewildered but so did Rafa. Rafa was the only manager I ever remember telling us our squad wasn’t good enough and we needed to hope that 3 teams in the league were worse than us. Terrible motivation for the team, and you guys are still sucking his d!ck.
Why is it so difficult for you guys to just give Bruce a chance?
OK if he crashes and burns, have a go, but until then get behind the team.
Brrrian(Quote)
He’s worse than that mate. He’s a fan with a keyboard and an internet connection.
The aim is to be popular with the other bleating sheep out there, and to achieve all this without actually having to think.
Brrrian(Quote)
Brrrrian…..
???????
You, of all people, accusing people of just being a fan with a keyboard?! Cracking stuff ?????
Jamie(Quote)
Sharpy 17
I’m certainly not a professional journalist and would never proclaim to be, I’m just a fan who sometimes writes for this site.
The point I was trying to make was more about the fact that Bruce can talk nonsense, and contradicts himself a lot and leaves himself open to criticism with what he says after games. He has done it several times. I’ll admit I left myself open to criticism by mentioning Rafa, it’s something that we all need to stop doing. I was merely making the point that Bruce gets scrutinized and Rafa didn’t, with very good reason. However It seems we agree with each other on the tactical analysis of the game. Let’s hooe we go and stuff West Ham.
Jamie(Quote)