Newcastle United: Fans react negatively to Steve Bruce’s comments about run of fixtures

Newcastle United suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday (via BBC Sport).

It was a result that left the Magpies in the Premier League relegation zone, with just two wins from their opening nine matches (BBC Sport).

Therefore, it has certainly been a tough start to life on Tyneside for new manager Steve Bruce, who took over from Rafael Benitez in the summer.

However, the former Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday manager is trying to remain positive. He has pointed to the fact that they have played five of the so-called top six clubs in the division and that they now have a period of fixtures against teams expected to be lower down the table (via Transfermarkt).

“We’ve had a really difficult start: Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Man United. It’s a stretch of games now of teams who are going to be in and around us,” said Bruce (via @NUFC).

Whilst he does have a point, Newcastle’s record against the teams not considered ‘top six’ is pretty poor. Indeed, they have already lost to Norwich City and Leicester City this season, whilst also failing to beat Watford and Brighton & Hove Albion (via Transfermarkt).

With this in mind, Newcastle fans have reacted pretty negatively to Bruce’s recent comments. They suggest that the team doesn’t perform well enough against the clubs around them in the table, and aren’t too optimistic of picking up many points in the games coming up, saying that even the teams they are set to play are better than them…

And how do we do against the teams around us?

Oh yeah, we’ve played Watford, Brighton and Norwich and not won any of them.

Great.

— Sam GC (@Funguslover) October 19, 2019

We’ve got Wolves, West Ham, Bournemouth and Villa now, I’d hardly call that easy, we’ll be betting underdogs for all 4 of those as well..

We are relying on a 22yo forward and basically no supporting goals from midfield.

— Dell 💦 6-1 (@agbnufc) October 19, 2019

I agree with the top 6 part but we even struggled against Watford and Brighton at home lads

— Scott 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@scxttnufc) October 19, 2019

excuses constantly man, our nxt 4 are teams above us, playing better football, better squads so we’ll be underdogs for them too, whats the excuses gonna be then, he’s out of his depth, he’s had a couple of lucky results catching teams at the right time, atrocious under this bloke

— David Robson (@dagvidjunior) October 19, 2019