Steve Bruce has admitted that he has concerns over potential burnout, particularly relating to two of his forward options, Joelinton and Miguel Almiron.
The Newcastle duo have both been almost ever-present fixtures in Bruce’s side this season, with Almiron having played 27 times in all competitions, missing just the one Premier League game while Joelinton has played every league game, totalling 28 appearances for the Magpies.
Following Newcastle’s 0-0 draw with Norwich on Saturday, the former Aston Villa boss spoke about his concerns, quoted by Chronicle Live as saying:
Look, with the problems that we’ve had – and I don’t want to highlight it – you can see with Joe in particular and with Almiron over the last two or three weeks, it would be lovely to be in a position where I could rotate them a little bit.
They’ve played every minute, practically, of every game and I haven’t got the luxury now of changing anything at that end of the pitch to give us a little bit of a spark.
Bruce did however defend his right to target only those players who would improve his squad (Chronicle Live), instead of simply looking to recruit more bodies to fill a space.
Following the club’s failure to sign Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud (talkSPORT), Newcastle elected not to make further offers for strikers, despite having Dwight Gayle, Andy Carroll and Yoshinori Muto out injured.
However, by not accepting that the club are simply in need of added bodies, Bruce presented himself with the burnout problem, as another player would have allowed him to rotate his options.
Everton’s Oumar Niasse (Liverpool Echo) and Burnley’s Matej Vydra (LancsLive) were both available for loan on the final day of the transfer window, and while neither have proved to be prolific goal-scorers this season, with Vydra goalless in six substitute appearances and Niasse goalless in three, they could have helped to ease the pressure on Joelinton and Almiron if Bruce elected to rotate and rest his main pair.
Injuries are, of course, out of a manager’s hands, and when any one of Gayle, Carroll or Muto comes back, Bruce will have options available to him at the very least.
However if the manager was truly worried about overworking his starting forwards, neither of whom have been prolific this season, then he would gambled in the transfer market by bringing in an unwanted forward on a short-term deal.
Bruce also confirmed (Mail Online) that Newcastle had seen a £35million bid accepted for an unnamed midfielder, believed to be Lille’s Boubakary Soumare, only for the player to turn down the move.
This further indicates that Newcastle had the funds available to make a short-term offer to an out of favour striker, which would have alleviated pressure.
Joelinton and Almiron may well shrug off any sign of tiredness and carry on fighting hard throughout the rest of the campaign, but if they are suffering from burnout and Bruce has concerns about the matter, it is only the club’s decision to make a move in the transfer market that the situation can be blamed upon.
