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Opinion

The evidence showing the clear decline at Newcastle United under Steve Bruce

3 years ago
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The appointment of Steve Bruce is still yet to go down well with many of the Newcastle United faithful, myself included.

I have grown accustomed to such mediocrity under Mike Ashley and it wasn’t the first time that he showed how much he ‘loves’ this club by hiring a struggling second tier manager to take the reins.

However, there have been many trolls (and misguided fans) and pundits who have hailed the job Steve Bruce has done, claiming he has been just as good as Rafa Benitez.

Interestingly, there were always statements coming out from the club concerning finances whilst Rafa was manager.

Mike Ashley always keen to claim that he was letting NUFC spend whatever money we made, meaning we had to sell/lose talent to gain talent.

In an attempt to resolve the debate, I’ve decided to look at the season records of our performances in the Premier League since the 2017 return to the top tier.

It is noteworthy that our worst PL defensive records of the last decade were in 2012/13 (68 goals), 2015/16 (65 goals), and 2014/15 (63 goals).

Season: W/D/L (Goals scored/Goals conceded) – points

2017-18: W12/D8/L18 (39/47) – 44pts

2018-19: W12/D9/L17 (42/48) – 45pts

2019-20: W11/D11/L16 (38/58) – 44pts

2020-21*: W9/D9/L16 (36/56) – 36pts

On the surface, Steve Bruce’s second season in charge looks set to maybe end on par with any of the previous three with four games left.

Unless you are considering how alarmingly poor our defence has become.

Plus, seeing as the Leicester and Man City games look likely to yield zero points and, if this season’s records are anything to go by, we would potentially end the season with this record:

Season: W/D/L (Goals scored/Goals conceded) – points

2020-21*: W9/D10/L19 (44, 65) – 37pts

Interestingly, this was the same record that saw us relegated in 2015-16 under the other Steve (McClaren). These were the stats that season:

McClaren – W6/D6/L16 (F31, A56) -24pts

Rafa – W3/D4/L3 (F13, A9) – 13pts

Considering all the above, it’s impossible to see how Steve Bruce has done us any favours.

While Rafa offered a steady improvement and lacked support, Bruce has actually regressed this team.

Last season, the clearest evidence lay in the performances on the pitch and the goals for/against ratios, while the overall W/D/L statistic was rather flattering.

This year however, all statistics are damning, with Steve Bruce going his own way now.

Hopefully he doesn’t take us with him!!

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