A selection of Newcastle supporters have been slamming Matt Ritchie on social media, after the Magpies midfielder insisted United must stick together following the dreadful defeat at Norwich City, as quoted by the Chronicle.
Steve Bruce’s tenure on Tyneside began with an array of errors at home to Arsenal, and failed to change at Carrow Road when Daniel Farke’s newly-promoted side stormed to their first win in the Premier League since May 2016.
Newcastle had two favourable opportunities to score in the first-half with Joelinton and debutant Emil Krafth sending their chances wide of the post, but more hopeless defending allowed Canaries striker Teemu Pukki to score Norwich’s first top-flight hat-trick in 26-years.
Ritchie, though, has called for more time before people jump to conclusions over whether or not Newcastle are missing Rafa Benitez, and if the performance at the weekend was as a result of Bruce’s abilities as a manager.
“You guys, the fans, and everyone, will all have their own opinions,” the £45,000-a-week midfielder noted. “Mine is that we have [to] stick together, continue to work hard, [and] try to improve.
“The group is very similar to what we had last season. I still believe the new additions can strengthen us. It may take a little bit of time, but it is a long season, and yes, we’d like to have got off the mark, but we didn’t.
“That’s certainly not the result we wanted, but we have to keep working and obviously improve. Everyone has to be patient.”
When pushed on if Benitez’s absence was playing on the player’s minds, Ritchie added: “Look, Rafa has gone. That’s over. It’s a new era now. We have to look forward, not backwards.
“There’s a new manager come in, someone the players believe in, and the club believes in. That’s important. We are working day in, day out to perform to our highest level and today we didn’t do that. We fell short.
“We certainly won’t just brush it to one side and move on to the next one. We will look at it, dissect it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Here’s how these Newcastle fans reacted to Ritchie’s comments…
Firstly Richies one of the players that would have been replaced upgraded had a takeover happend & money available to fulfil clubs potential
That’s why he backs Ashley & Bruce so he can keep his job
Several other players in this category do same Article is mostly waffle #NUFC— Keith Allen (@KeithAllen517) August 19, 2019
Ritchie part of the problem
— John P (@atlutd17) August 19, 2019
Had Rafa stayed, Richie wouldn’t be at #nufc he knew he’d got as much as he could out of him.
— Rob Laws (@rob_laws_85) August 19, 2019
I would have rafa over ritchie tho rob! Can only see decline ahead
— jokeshop (@jokeshop2) August 19, 2019
Note – when asked if it’s Bruce’s fault we lost he didn’t say no
— Guy Rooney (@falconrep) August 19, 2019
Terrible performance, start to last season was poor but people got behind the team until they turned it around. If people don’t do the same this year heads will drop, they see the negativity.
— Jamie Charlton (@jamiecharlton93) August 19, 2019
Big big difference to last year. Last year we lost close matches, we could have got results at Spurs, Chelsea, unlucky against Cardiff and very unlucky against Brighton. There was a clear plan…can you tell me you can see a plan right now? We look disorganised and lost.
— chetan chohan (@ChetanChohan7) August 19, 2019
Slight adjustment to the system? More like ‘just play where u want lads, dont worry about shape’ like watching 5 year olds running towards the ball
— Lee Anderson (@RealLeeAnderson) August 19, 2019
But still rates Ashley aye?
— CactusKev (@KevCactus) August 19, 2019
Let me guess ‘we go again’ is in there somewhere.
— Jamie Fender (@Jamie_NUFC) August 19, 2019
Why should it start now? The season is already two games old. Other teams started two games ago. I’m concerned the lot of them are making it up as they go along!
— Richard Cahill (@Richard_Cahill) August 19, 2019