Steve Bruce’s struggling Newcastle United will face Tottenham Hotspur in their third Premier League game of the season on Sunday.
Steve Bruce is under no illusions of the task facing his Newcastle United side on Sunday, labelling Tottenham Hotspur ‘one of the best teams in Europe’ in quotes reported by the Chronicle.
A trip to North London could hardly have come at a worse time for Bruce.
The pressure is mounting already on the Geordie gaffer with a large section of the famously demanding Newcastle fanbase already turning on a manager they never wanted in the first place. An opening day defeat to Arsenal was understandable; the meekest of collapses against Norwich City last week certainly wasn’t.
So the Newcastle faithful would be forgiven for dreading a clash against Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and co in Spurs’ backyard.
Though Bruce is praying that a clash against the Champions League finalists is exactly what Newcastle need to awake from their slumber. Sleepwalking to another heavy defeat would hardly help the former Sunderland boss win over his new ‘supporters’ after all.
“Spurs are one of the best teams in Europe, we’re under no illusions how difficult it is but hopefully this is the type of game we need as we have to be at our best,” said Bruce, who already appears to be howling wistfully into the wind.
Speculation had suggested that Bruce was planning to move away from his 3-5-2 formation in favour of a more traditional flat-back four, with Jamaal Lascelles, Fabian Schar and Miguel Almiron looking lost and unsure of their roles in a new system. But Bruce is keen to stick with a plan that worked so well in pre-season.
“We may tinker a bit and change a couple of things. It’s too early to change formations,” he added to the Chronicle.
With the scrutiny reaching almost untolerable levels already, Bruce will be hoping that a tactical experiment does not blow up in his face in the capital.
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