Newcastle United suffered yet another defeat in the Premier League, as they were well-beaten by Manchester City on Boxing Day.
The Magpies were dominated from start to finish in the game, with Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres scoring the goals for Pep Guardiola’s side, as they moved to fifth in the top-flight standings following the match.
Newcastle have now won just once in their last five matches in all competitions, which has seen a number of the St. James’ Park faithful voice their frustrations over their poor start to this year’s campaign.
Toon boss Steve Bruce is seemingly coming under increasing pressure from some sections of the club’s supporters, and with their next match being against league leaders Liverpool, it doesn’t get any easier.
Newcastle had just 25% possession against Manchester City on Saturday, which will have been frustrating to witness for supporters, especially as they were chasing the game since Ilkay Gundogan’s 14th-minute opener.
Speaking in a post-match interview, Bruce made the surprising admission that he couldn’t fault his players in terms of effort and application, despite not troubling Manchester City for the majority of the game.
“Not good enough on the night. We understand that, but in terms of effort and application and the way they’ve gone about it, then I couldn’t ask for anymore.”
Plenty of the St James’ Park faithful took to Twitter to voice their frustrations over Bruce’s latest comments.
Take a look at the best of the reaction below.
“He will relegate us.”
“Time to go.”
“Absolute joke of a tactician, the man has no great managerial talent apart from spouting the same drivel after each game.”
“He has lost it and needs to go. Not good enough. He is draining the life out of us.”
“So that excuse of a coach had formally admitted that our ambition is just to remain in the EPL. My ambition after 38 years is not to renew my season ticket.”
“Embarrassing comments from a clueless manager. I’ve tried my best to give him a chance but I can’t stand the drivel that comes out of his mouth every week defending his pathetic tactics. There’s been some bad days supporting this club but never this bad!”
“Incompetent manager and undeserving of his wages, do the decent thing and sack him.”
Bruce has been in charge of Newcastle since 2019, and guided them to a 13th-place finish last season, but his tactics have been criticised in recent weeks by some supporters, which don’t exactly make these latest responses from fans a huge surprise.