Newcastle United and Aston Villa both spent big money on strikers over the summer transfer window.
Newcastle have come in for criticism over breaking their transfer fee on Joelinton, who still has just one Premier League goal to his name.
But Bruce feels that Villa and West Ham United have suffered a similar problem to Newcastle, after spending big on a striker.
West Ham invested a lot into Sebastian Haller over the summer, while Villa’s most expensive recruit was Wesley.
And Bruce said: “This year, you only have to look at West Ham investing heavily in a big centre forward and I can understand the way the club were thinking.
“They wanted a big centre forward to lead the line, the No.9 for Newcastle, and you search around England and think, ‘Where do you get one of those?’
“So, of course, you go to Europe and if you look at [Sebastien] Haller at West Ham and the boy [Wesley] who’s injured at Aston Villa, who’s another big No.9, and you look at the returns they give, they have all found it difficult.”
The problem for Bruce is that Joelinton has struggled even more than both Haller and Wesley.
Haller at least has seven goals to his name for West Ham, while Wesley scored five times in 21 appearances for Villa before he got injured.
Joelinton, on the other hand, has never looked like cutting in the Premier League yet, with the Brazilian looking totally out of sorts.
Joelinton was used on the left-flank in Newcastle’s most recent game against Burnley, but that move didn’t spark him into life, as Bruce’s side failed to score for the fourth game running.
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