Newcastle United lost 1-0 away at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Newcastle United boss Steve Bruce has told The Chronicle that he felt his players were ignoring the runs of Valentino Lazaro against Crystal Palace.
The Magpies lost once again on Saturday afternoon, falling to a 1-0 defeat at Selhurst Park as Patrick van Aanholt haunted his former club with the only goal of the game.
Newcastle are really struggling now, taking just six points from the last nine games to suddenly leave relegation as a threat once again.
Bruce needs his January signings to really make a big impact, but Lazaro was sent off late in the game on Saturday, meaning he now faces a suspension.
The January signing from Inter Milan had a mixed game against Arsenal, but Bruce has praised Lazaro despite the red card at Palace.
Bruce felt that Lazaro was Newcastle’s best player against Palace, claiming he was ‘terrific’ against Palace’s star winger Wilfried Zaha.
Bruce added that he felt Newcastle ‘ignored’ Lazaro so much in attack, believing he was making great runs that weren’t being picked up and spotted by his teammates – something that must be addressed moving forward.
“He was disappointed because I thought he was our best player today. I thought he was terrific against Zaha,” said Bruce. “We ignored him so much in the final third when he was in good positions and didn’t feed him enough of the ball to show the quality he’s got. With 10 seconds to go, does the referee need to send him off? A bit of common sense maybe but there you go,” he added.
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