Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes that Newcastle manager Steve Bruce will stick with the 4-4-2 setup for the Magpies’ trip to Aston Villa on Saturday and has backed them to start scoring goals again with that approach.
Bruce’s reaction to the mounting pressure on his shoulders ahead of the game against Arsenal on Monday was to insist that the ‘gloves are off’ and that the Magpies would be braver and more adventurous in their attacking intentions. That culminated in eight changes to the starting line-up and a shift to a 4-4-2 formation, but that failed to have the desired effect and they were toothless up front in the 3-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium.
It has been reported that Mike Ashley will stick by Bruce despite the nine-game winless run and that he will only be in trouble if they fall into the bottom three. Further reports from Chronicle Live have revealed that it would cost Newcastle around £1.5m in compensation to part company with the former Sheffield Wednesday manager.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, via Chronicle Live, Neville insisted that Bruce will stick by the changed approach and persist with a more attacking setup against Aston Villa and in the coming weeks. The pundit also believes that they will start to score more goals with that system in the next few matches, saying:
I think he’ll stick with the same plan realising that opponents in other games could be weaker than the one he’s played tonight.
He’s not going to panic, he’s got longevity in the game, experience, he knew full well when he took this job that there was gonna come a period when he came under fire.
At the start of last season, they thought they were gonna go down, that’s all I heard from Newcastle fans at the start of last season. There was real depression around the appointment of Steve Bruce because he managed Sunderland, etc.
But there was a bit of surprise about how they did and this period was always going to come, Steve knew that, he is not going to panic when he’s here.
He’s gonna stick to his job, get his players back on the training pitch and on Saturday night against Villa, they have another opportunity to try and win a football match.
They will start to score goals if they play three or four strikers on the pitch like they did tonight.
Read Newcastle verdict
The one change that many Newcastle fans would like to see at the moment is in the dugout itself, but short of that they will at least demand that Bruce does persist with the more adventurous approach to matches that, at least on paper, he did against Arsenal. In that regard, they will hope that Neville’s prediction proves to be accurate.
However, it is going to take more than just a change of shape to improve matters on the field, with just one goal scored in their last seven games. That will only be rectified if their intent improves and they start to take more risks on the ball and be braver in terms of pressing higher up the pitch.
Bruce has to start seeing more from his players very soon because they are in danger of dropping into the bottom three at some stage if they cannot pick up points. At the moment that is the only danger for the Magpies boss in terms of losing his job, and it might make him want to be a little more cautious in his approach.
