Stat suggests Steve Bruce’s Newcastle are more resilient than Rafa Benitez’s

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No matter how long Steve Bruce stays at Newcastle, he’ll be compared to Rafa Benitez.

And for most, no matter what he does in the dugout at St James’ Park, he won’t live up to the legendary Spanish gaffer.

But to his credit, Bruce is getting a tune out of these Newcastle players, picking up 22 points from his first 16 games in charge. That’s a strong return, even if the quality of football is far from the beautiful game in its purest form.

During Benitez’s time in charge, the football wasn’t great either, although it felt like everything had a purpose. Under Bruce, it’s hard to feel the same as his reputation goes before him.

Resilient Newcastle

Newcastle came from behind to win on Sunday, showing a resilience not to accept defeat. A trait carried on from the Benitez era, Newcastle’s never-say-die attitude might actually be even stronger this season.

So far, Newcastle have won eight points from losing positions. They’ve came from a goal down to beat Southampton and Bournemouth, they rescued a point after conceding early to Watford, and they amazingly got a draw against Manchester City despite going behind twice.

In the 2018/19 season, Newcastle only picked up seven points all season from losing positions. They came from behind to beat Manchester City and Everton, as well as drawing 2-2 with Bournemouth.

Now you could argue that Benitez’s side were solid enough that they wouldn’t have gone behind in games against the likes of Southampton, but Bruce certainly deserves credit for picking up points from losing positions.

Back when Alan Pardew was in charge, it seemed like as soon as we went behind, the game was over. While you might think that under Bruce, the evidence suggests otherwise.