Jamie Redknapp has revealed live on Sky Sports’ Super Sunday that Steve Bruce told him that he does not have the players to keep the ball high up the pitch.
Following the club’s 4-0 defeat against Arsenal on the weekend, the pundit discussed a conversation the two of them had had after they beat Chelsea 1-0 in mid-January.
Even with his team coming off the back of a great win, Bruce was clear with the pundit about why his team plays the way in which they do, and why they don’t see themselves have much possession.
Redknapp said: “I was talking to Bruce after the Chelsea game and he said we haven’t got the players to get up the pitch and keep it, we have to defend well and we have to hope that those three players [Saint-Maximin, Almiron and Joelinton] can do something special and he [Saint-Maximin] is certainly capable.”
Will Bruce regret not signing a striker in January?
Yes
No
The club has come under criticism this year for their style of play – mostly from their fans – but when you look at the league table, it is hard to argue with the tactics that have been deployed.
If you roll back to the start of the campaign, there were many who thought that Bruce’s side were destined for relegation. Now, with seven points and four teams separating them from the drop zone, and with a decent January window behind their back, there aren’t many who will be backing them to get relegated now.
How have they gotten there? By being very hard to beat at home, and generally pretty solid defensively. They may have conceded 40 Premier League goals this season – only three have conceded more – but they sit seventh in the list for clean sheets (seven). So while they have the potential to drift in a match once it has slipped away from them, they still know how to keep teams at bay and hit them on the counter.
Bruce’s team might not be playing great football, but they’re picking up points without having possession. 12 out of their 24 goals thus far have been from defenders, so if they can keep up that statistic, they will be okay this season – even if it isn’t pretty reading for supporters.