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Opinion

Is it wrong to look beyond the headlines at Newcastle United?

3 years ago
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Managers when under pressure, or when they have lost their job, often bemoan the fact that people weren’t interested in looking beyond the scoreline.

Complaining that club owners, fans and media were only concentrating on results, not what lay beneath those headline scores.

Ironically, it is pretty much the opposite at Newcastle United.

Steve Bruce in effect saying that everybody should be looking at the scores / results, rather than going into so much analysis and detail after matches.

The Newcastle United Head Coach increasingly frustrated with how people, NUFC supporters in the main, are negatively looking at the job he is doing.

Fans watched Brighton take Newcastle apart 3-0 at St James Park and then follow that up with the 1-1 draw at Tottenham. When supporters can see absolutely zero plan on trying to create chances and Tottenham deserving to win by five or six, just because a total fluke of a day produces a 1-1 draw is not going to make the fans forget what they have just watched (endured).

In 41 Premier League matches so far, Steve Bruce has produced at the very most a handful of games where it was both a convincing scoreline and performance.

Hopefully the Burnley game on Saturday night will make it a slightly bigger handful.

It’s just not cricket

Steve Bruce is well known to be a huge cricket fan.

Winning the toss in a cricket match is always more important than doing so ahead of a football game. Not that captains always make the right choice but there are almost always relatively strong reasons for deciding whether to bat or bowl first.

Whereas in football, you are only talking about which way to kick for 45 minutes, although some Newcastle fans would claim an advantage in kicking down the slope towards the Gallowgate in the second half. Having said that, despite kicking towards the Leazes first half most of the time, Newcastle have only won two home Premier League matches since 21 December 2019, so maybe not such a massive help.

In cricketing terms, Steve Bruce has effectively ‘won the toss’ on seven of the eight last occasions in cup draws. The latest on Wednesday night, Newcastle drawing Brentford rather than the likes of Man City, Everton, Arsenal or Tottenham.#

This is seven lower league opponents and just one Premier League one in the last eight cup draws, you can’t argue against the ability of Steve Bruce on this one…

Take a break

Three weeks and six games in, the first international break is now with us.

An intense period of football and away fans left frustrated that they haven’t had to already do the miles to West Ham, Tottenham, Newport and Morecambe.

We are told it could be around six months before any fans are allowed back into Premier League stadiums, whilst difficult to see away fans back into games at all in 2020/21.

A way of life for many, occasional treats for many more.

Here’s hoping that in the not so distant future Newcastle fans can once again complain about the injustice of the latest Monday night away match.

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