Newcastle United journalist Andrew Musgrove has slammed Steve Bruce’s ‘questionable’ decision to not replace Callum Wilson with another striker during their weekend defeat.
In their most recent Premier League outing, the Magpies succumbed to a disappointing 3-2 home loss against Tottenham Hotspur. At one stage, however, things actually looked quite positive for Newcastle.
Indeed, perhaps buoyed by the sudden departure of Mike Ashley, the club got off to a flying start when Wilson headed in the opener after just two minutes.
Will Bruce be sacked this week?
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Unfortunately for the Magpies, by the 77th minute, they were 3-1 down and Bruce decided to change things up. He made a double change, with Ryan Fraser and Jacob Murphy coming on to replace Callum Wilson and Joe Willock.
While speaking on the Everything is Black and White podcast, Musgrove questioned the call to leave striker Dwight Gayle on the bench, and suggested that the crowd at St. James’ Park felt a similar way.
He said: “Callum Wilson obviously got the goal and he is probably the only goalscoring threat. But then to take him off and not bring Dwight Gayle on was certainly questionable.
“People in the stands were asking the question of why he goes off – and I think it was Ryan Fraser and Jacob Murphy came on – where’s the striker?”
TIF Thoughts on Steve Bruce and Newcastle…
It doesn’t really look as if Bruce will be making many more substitutions during his time at Newcastle. Still, a good result on the weekend would have been a fine way to celebrate his 1,000th game as a manager.
Instead, the poor performance serves as a stark reminder that the Magpies are still very much candidates to go down this season.
It will be interesting to see how much longer Bruce remains in charge of the club, but when he does go, the new boss will certainly have a huge task on their hands.
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