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Steve Bruce blames referee for 2-1 defeat to Everton

4 years ago
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Steve Bruce has blamed the referee for Saturday’s defeat.

Newcastle dropping into the bottom half of the table with defeat to Everton.

It was only the second Premier League away win for the scousers in nine months.

Steve Bruce declaring after defeat: ‘We got our backsides kicked at Manchester United but today we were punished by the referee’s mistake.’

This has become a bit of a regular occurrence.

Steve Bruce always trying to shift the blame apart from when even he realises he would look really stupid to attempt it, such as when Leicester scored five or Man Utd four.

The NUFC Head Coach insisting there were ‘all sorts of contentious decisions’ but that in particular Almiron should allegedly have got a penalty: ‘There are all sorts of contentious decisions you can talk about but the one with Almiron is the one, it was 30 seconds in, it was obvious.’

To be honest, it is all a bit feeble for Steve Bruce to try and hide behind excuses like this, especially considering the luck he has carried this season.

Maybe on another day Newcastle might have got one or two decisions against Everton but that wasn’t really why Newcastle got beat.

Yet again, as usual, Newcastle were second best. It was a more open game for Bruce’s NUFC than usual and yes they had a few more shots than normal (which wouldn’t be difficult) but they were still second best to an average team, that never wins away from home.

Everton had more shots on target (9 v 5), more possession (58%) and more corners (8 v 5).

Martin Dubravka made some excellent saves to keep United in the game, I can’t really remember our old mate Jordan Pickford having a serious save to make, apart from Schar’s excellent volley that he had to pick out the back of the net.

Our strikers don’t even have shots, never mind score goals.

Newcastle’s most talented attacking player finds himself expected to spend most of each game defending, when instead Miguel Almiron should be played further up the pitch where he can do some damage, instead of only able to make very occasional impressions up front. No surprise that on one of those he came closest to getting the team a goal, unlucky to see his effort come back off the post.

With the last four games showing three defeats and a very lucky win over Palace, Steve Bruce needs to stop blaming others for the results and instead look at where he should be doing better in both preparation and tactics.

Only two weeks earlier, Steve Bruce was embarrassing  himself after defeat at Burnley, trying to blame the referee despite his team not having a single effort on target. Bruce blaming defeat on the fact it was the referee’s first match in the Premier League, even though the biggest mistake the ref made that day was giving a yellow not red to Andy Carroll after he elbowed somebody in the face: ‘You want the referee to do his job. We feel aggrieved today. Since Tuesday, I knew he was going to be the referee, and thought: Burnley v Newcastle, big physical encounter, is he ready?’

Steve Bruce:

“People are working hard but are obviously fatigued, that is why Carlo [Ancelotti] made five changes and I made four.

“You can see that the game was littered with mistakes.

“I thought Joelinton played very well.

“I thought that on Boxing Day he went missing but that this was arguably his best game since Spurs.

“He has given me something to think about playing in a wider area.

“We have asked Flo [Lejeune] to play three games in a week, simply because of the [injury] problems we have had…we will have to see how he is [for Leicester].

“Same with Fab Schar, he is complaining about his hamstring.

“Joelinton has a problem with his calf, it is what it is.

“That challenge on Almiron is a penalty.

“That is the conundrum….because he hasn’t gone down he hasn’t been rewarded.

“So what do you do? In the future he will go over, otherwise you don’t get the penalty.

“Almiron was attacked for diving. If he goes over, it’s a penalty. For me it is a red card.

“He tried to stay on his feet and be honest but hasn’t got a reward.

“You do wonder if it’s going to be your day.

“There are all sorts of contentious decisions you can talk about but the one with Almiron is the one, it was 30 seconds in, it was obvious.

“VAR is there and for me, we have to let the ref have a look on the touchline rather than going to Stockley Park. Then the ref is accountable.

“We got our backsides kicked at Manchester United but today we were punished by the referee’s mistake.

“The players didn’t deserve it but you have to accept it. 

“It is always frustrating when you think you don’t deserve to get beaten.

“After getting back into the game we had a really good 20-25 minutes but then we were caught by a sucker punch, the effort and endeavour meant they [Newcastle’s players] didn’t deserve to lose.

“We are halfway there.

“We have done OK and given ourselves a nice platform for the second half of the season.

Stats from BBC Sport:

Newcastle 1 Everton 2 – Saturday 28 December 3pm

Goals:

Newcastle:

Schar 56

Everton:

Calvert-Lewin 13. 64

Possession was Everton 58%, Newcastle 42%

Total shots were Everton 22 , Newcastle 20

Shots on target were Everton 9, Newcastle 5

Corners were Everton 8, Newcastle 5

Crowd: 52,211 (10,000 free NUFC season ticket holders and 3,000 Everton)

Referee: Lee Mason

Newcastle team v Everton:

Dubravka, Yedlin, Schar, Lejeune (Atsu 74), Fernandez, Willems (Sean Longstaff 84), Hayden, Shelvey, Almiron, Carroll, Joelinton (Gayle 74)

Unused Subs

Darlow, M Longstaff, Manquillo, Krafth

(Newcastle 1 Everton 2 – Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to Saturday’s defeat – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 1 Everton 2 – Watch official match highlights and all three goals here – Watch HERE)

(Newcastle 1 Everton 2 – Third defeat in four games as Andy Carroll is hero then villain – Read HERE)

(The Magpie Group official response to ‘sold out’ Newcastle 1 Everton 2 match – Read HERE)

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