Newcastle Utd News

‘Hasn’t got a clue’, ‘More frightening every day’: Many Newcastle fans concerned by Bruce’s plans

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Many Newcastle United supporters have been sharing their concern after Steve Bruce claimed he intends to look at ‘all sorts of stuff’ to get the Magpies firing after back-to-back defeats, as quoted by the Chronicle.

Among the aspects Bruce intends to reflect on is the use of his favoured 3-5-2 formation, which he has enforced on the first-team since his arrival, despite United playing our best football under Rafa Benitez last season with a three-man attack.

The Magpies have not been able to replicate the same sort of output this term, though, as an extra man in the core has seen United stifled, despite Bruce expecting a packed engine room to return a greater share of the goals, after Salmon Rondon and Ayoze Perez were responsible for 56% of our Premier League strikes last term.

“I’ll have a look [at changing the system ahead of the Tottenham game],” Bruce said. “Of what we’ve got available, and the way we are, I do think we are better suited to playing it [3-5-2].

“Obviously, when you get beat today, it’s too early to look at it just like that straight away, but make no bones about it, I’ll be looking at all sorts of stuff to make sure we’re better.”

While the formation may not change when we face Spurs at the weekend, Bruce hopes he will be able to call on Allan Saint-Maximin for the trip to North London, after the Frenchman was sidelined from the Carrow Road horror show through injury.

“We hope so,” the boss added. “He’s a little bit sore. He’s not really had a hamstring injury before, so we obviously have to box a little bit clever.

“The one thing we couldn’t risk was if he played and tears it then he’s out for weeks and months so, unfortunately, with him and Dwight Gayle, we become a little bit hamstrung – pardon the pun – in that area.”

Here’s how these fans reacted to Bruce’s plans to kick-start our season…

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