Steve Bruce has just highlighted his own mistake with Almiron comments

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Newcastle United have given Miguel Almiron a new role this season.

Newcastle United are on the road again this weekend, taking on Tottenham Hotspur in North London – and fans are looking for improvements.

The Magpies were completely overwhelmed by newly-promoted Norwich City last weekend, losing 3-1 at Carrow Road in a dismal showing.

One of the main points of contention is Steve Bruce’s 5-3-2 setup. Rafael Benitez played a 5-4-1/5-2-3 last season, using Miguel Almiron and Ayoze Perez just off Salomon Rondon.

That allowed for effective movement, buzzing around a target man in Rondon. Having two men in those roles ensured Rondon wasn’t isolated, and gave him two players who could come deep or get in behind.

Bruce has gone away from that though. He’s been using Almiron up front with Joelinton, and it just hasn’t worked. Joelinton is in some ways similar to Rondon, but Almiron is no striker. He’s an attacking midfielder, a number 10 who wants to get on the ball.

That has been apparent so far. Almiron is coming deep to get involved in midfield, as he has done throughout his career, but is leaving Joelinton isolated in attack in the process, stifling Newcastle’s attack.

Not that it’s his fault though. The Paraguayan is being misused by new boss Bruce, who has basically just admitted his own mistake when speaking to The Chronicle ahead of today’s game.

“For Almiron, the thing we are working on, of course, is can we get him higher up the pitch,” said Bruce. “He’s a very, very good player, but he tends to drift into midfield naturally, that’s what he wants to do. We’ve tried to work on can we get him higher up the pitch in a goalscoring position?” he added.

This feels somewhat bizarre. Why not use Almiron in a midfield role? Why try and take an exciting dribbler and a creative force, and try and turn him into a striker?

If Bruce persists with this approach, the criticism will only grow louder. He’s admitted himself that Almiron – naturally – wants to come deep, get on the ball and create, yet he’s trying to push him go forward and be a supporting striker.

That seems bizarre, and a move back to 5-2-3 would be better, introducing real pace in Allan Saint-Maximin and taking pressure off Almiron to get goals – after all, he’s yet to even open his account for the Magpies.

It’s hard to even see why Bruce is pushing for this idea right now, as in the first two games, there haven’t even really been glimpses of the setup working. It’s time to let Almiron do what he does best, picking the ball up and creating or dribbling from 10 or 15 yards deeper than where Bruce wants him right now, as he just isn’t suited to that role – and it means Newcastle are wasting one of their most exciting and most valuable assets at a difficult time.