Newcastle United have lost their opening two Premier League encounters.
Jon Walters has launched a scathing attack on the Newcastle United players as he told them to ‘have a word with themselves’ following their defeat to Norwich over the weekend.
The former Premier League striker stated that Steve Bruce wasn’t to blame for their ‘shambolic’ defending against Norwich because he would have drilled them on the training pitch ‘no matter what’.
Striker Teemu Pukki netted a brilliant hat-trick as Daniel Farke’s side took apart Newcastle with ease to inflict a second defeat of the season on Bruce’s side.
Speaking on Goals on Sunday on Sky Sports PL (18/08/2019 at 12:30 pm), Walters wasn’t impressed with the Newcastle players as he stated they deserved to train on Sunday, their day off, because of their performance the day before.
“The defence are all over the shop,” Walters told Goals on Sunday. “It’s nothing Steve Bruce hasn’t done with them. Of any manager in the Premier League, I have respect for Steve Bruce more than anyone.
“He would have had them drilled, no matter what. 100%, It’s only the players when they go out on the pitch. That’s just shambolic defending [against Norwich]. They need to have a word with themselves rather than the manager doing it.
“When you are defending like that then you should be in on a Sunday [their day off] and working on it.”
Bruce is known to work his teams hard on the training pitch and ensure that his players are set-up in the best possible manner when it comes to defending their goal.
But, whatever tactic Bruce employed at the weekend, then it clearly didn’t work because his team were ripped to shreds against a team that could potentially be their relegation rivals this season.
Nonetheless, it doesn’t get any easier for Bruce and his players because their next encounter will be against Mauricio Pochettino Tottenham, who have picked up four points from their opening two matches.
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