Fans are tired of the lifeless football of their manager and, with Fulham making progress, he could drag Arm Toon back to the Championship
“We’ll take a point, and move on to next week,” is a strong statement that only some Premier League managers should use – and only then in certain circumstances.
It’s a reserved astronomy for subconsciously bravely fighting relegation, coming up for air after a particularly grim incident in which traction is a fair, and useful, point on the table.
It shouldn’t be a real draw from Steve Bruce’s post-match interview following Newcastle United’s 0-0 draw with West Brom. Within it he accepts the acceptance of the midge that has left fans tired of their manager.
Newcastle fans are consistently accused that the media deserves it when in reality they want only the minimum; something to build on, a sign of progress, a reason to be optimistic.
These expectations have not come into sharper focus over the past 12 months as the Covid-19 pandemic hole has been revealed back on them in the form of a sad, happy football.
Things at Newcastle go much deeper than the manager, of course, Mike Ashley is only a small part of the club ‘s total ownership, but we are nonetheless far beyond the point where Bruce is innocent.
It is, of course, quite appropriate for Ashley’s model; sleepwalking to disaster.
Under Bruce, Newcastle has gradually seen a water slide so that they finally start drowning. They are just one point above the dotted line now and, according to Ashley ‘s long history of delaying action for too long, reports indicate that there are no plans to release Bruce.
The club must try to climb out of the way with Bruce at the helm, and even before we get into the ingenious details of his tenure at St James’ Park there are a number of reasons to believe it would not be possible.
His self-confidence, expressed in sighs and shaking of the head, shows just how deeply he misunderstands the importance of emotion, ambition and desire for his club’s fans. .
From the outside, he seems to think that his remit is to choke on one point at a time. And that seems like everything. Bruce loses that psychological battle.
Newcastle fans get to know the fans of Aston Villa, a club of the same size whose fan base grew tired of Bruce’s strong notion that Villa ‘there or there’ would come at the end the season.
That attraction says it all, and certainly Villa – playing a very grim football – is found around the right area of the Championship before things fell apart after two years.
We’re getting close to that point in Newcastle, but only this time there’s a report that a player’s uprising is getting more emotional.
A training riot between Bruce and Matt Ritchie was announced last week, which follows the manager publicly criticizing the views of his players in January: “the gloves are off now and we’ll make my way. ”
The controversy was about tactics, with the players preferring the five goals scored by Rafael Benitez while Bruce wanted to take a new direction, and of course it probably helps to explain the instability of the club since Bruce’s arrival in July 2019.
Up until January this year Newcastle played mostly in a deep, non-controversial 5-4-1 form. They didn’t push, they didn’t attack any real rhythm, and they rarely stayed together in their defensive range.
For the most part Newcastle have been consistently porous between the lines, stretched too far straight to stop the forward from playing straight through. It was as if they were locked between two ideologies, too lazy to step on the pitch but not enthusiastic enough to sit back.
Curvy, aimless football – which seemed to neatly incorporate the Newcastle brand under Ashley – was punctuated by moments of homosexuality from Allan Saint-Maximin, or by back-to-back results. against the ‘Big Six’.
Bruce ‘s difficult attempts to move the players away from Benitez’ s methods may have been to blame for this limbo. But in the last few weeks Bruce has moved on to a four – man best defense and Newcastle in particular have pushed 20 yards up the pitch.
Finally leaving their limbo, Bruce has also started using 4-4-2 diamonds in which the full backs are encouraged to go up the wings while Miguel Almiron enjoys the best. free behind two strikers. It looks good, but it doesn’t quite work that way.
Bruce has been vocal about the tactical shift – “instead of sitting deep and playing off a low block he wants to try to get higher up the pitch” – but standards are low.
Speaking about their more aggressive situation after losing the FA Cup to Arsenal, Bruce said he hoped fans would enjoy watching their team give it their all. “Newcastle had maintained 38 per cent possession and had four hits on target in 120 minutes against Arsenal ‘s second-string squad.
To his credit, Everton’s 2-0 win and Southampton’s 3-0 win (both in the 4-4-2 diamonds) seemed to breathe new life into Newcastle, just for the ball. -foot to return in later games.
Even with Saint-Maximin back from injury, there is a sense that Newcastle will get back to defensive football which has been Bruce ‘s managerial role.
He says that just before Bruce told reporters “we’ll take a point” after the terrible 0-0 draw there with West Brom, he said “it was important that we didn’t lose the game,” he said. apparently because that meant they were still keeping Fulham clean.
But Fulham won quickly at Anfield a few hours later. That ‘s the problem with taking the point, with suffering from poor performance, and with feeling okay about achieving the lowest level: you finally walk the into your accident, and before you wake up it’s already too late.