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For those who defend Steve Bruce, what should count is the results and not the performances.
Newcastle are relatively safe in the Premier League and were only 90 minutes away from a League Cup semi-final, the narrative read. Why the restlessness?
Well, they didn’t beat Brentford. They were surpassed and surpassed by a team whose main objective before the tie was not to damage their league campaign. For all intents and purposes, it felt like Brentford was there to drink.
Hear the latest episode of The Everything is Black and White Podcast as Brentford’s defeat labeled ‘chaotic’
However, despite their six changes, they looked like the best team for most of the game and deserved to advance to the semifinals.
Bruce can speak of disappointment and frustration, but the problems run deeper: His team barely put a glove on the Championships side, whose boss had decided to lay off some of his best players.
How could Newcastle, with time running out, not take a single shot on goal? Where was the struggle, the desire within this side? This was an opportunity to give the city some hope in what has been a lousy year.
They couldn’t do that.
However, more than that, what was the plan? Once again, Newcastle backed down and allowed the opposition to do what they wanted; if the plan was to hit them on the counter, it was not shown.
If the plan was to mark them, it didn’t work out. Once again Newcastle were left out with set pieces, twice in the first half of the fortune that Ethan Pinnock and Sergi Canos, who found themselves unmarked, could only direct their heads wide.
Once again, the midfield was overlooked, only four tackle attempts out of the four that started, and captain Jonjo Shelvey failed to register a single one.
United were again sloppy in possession by giving the ball away 27 times, and the four that started in midfield were responsible for 30% of errors.
Newcastle recorded 18 more passes throughout the game than Brentford (396 versus 378, but they were outscored as they advanced) with 73% of the Bee’s passes going forward, but only 68% of United’s.
But the most surprising stat is that of shots on goal in the second half. Having tested Luke Daniels twice in the first half when Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser forced him to make good saves, the signs that Brentford might be raped were there, but after the restart nothing happened.
Sky Sports commentator Don Goodman told viewers it could be an exciting final 15 minutes with Newcastle ‘in favor’; moments later, Andy Carroll threw one into the stands. That’s the most exciting thing it got: Newcastle, despite ‘trying’, failed to register a single shot on goal in the second half.
However, this is nothing new: in recent weeks, when they have been lucky enough to score four points from the three promoted teams, their vulnerability at the rear has been demonstrated as well as a lack of creativity.
The League Cup was Bruce’s best form of defense when it came to his critics, but that performance could well put him on the path that no coach wants to go.
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