Newcastle went in front against Wolves on Sunday, but at no point looked capable of extending their lead.
Jamaal Lascelles crashed home a header in the first half, but the second 45 was spent defending, with the Magpies getting deeper and deeper. And according to the Chronicle, that wasn’t a tactical decision by Steve Bruce.
So if it wasn’t tactical, then why on earth did it happen? Bruce has an idea.
“Is it a mentality thing? Possibly,” he told the Chronicle.
“But we have to try to change that mentality. We spoke about it at half-time, to win the second half. We just sat in, and sat in, and looked to protect what we had.
“In the Premier League that’s always difficult, you’ve got to try to pose a threat yourself, like we did in the first half. In the second half, we just didn’t do enough.”
When Rafa Benitez was in charge, his Newcastle side were hard to beat. They would do a lot of defending, playing on the counter to great effect.
In contrast, Bruce’s Newcastle side aren’t hard to beat and do a lot of defending. They try to play on the counter but are pretty toothless going forward.
So what is Bruce actually doing with his players? He’s often spoke about wanting to play attacking football, but the Magpies are actually even worse going forward than they were.
And defensively, they aren’t as solid. There was nothing wrong with Newcastle’s mentality when Rafa was manager. They knew what they were good at and were able to get results.
So now Bruce isn’t getting results, that mentality that Rafa instilled in his players is the problem? Pull the other one, Steve…
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