How would you want players to react after an embarrassing defeat? There seems to be an old fashioned attitude that the best thing to do is get them back in for some sort of punishment session or film study to try and get over everything that went on.
Perhaps it’s sometimes best to let the players stew on the result and then get it out of their system, rather than focus too much on it.
One thing for sure is it doesn’t really matter what Steve Bruce does, he will probably get criticised for his decisions. That will mainly come from angry fans who had to watch their side but in a woeful showing as Leicester stuck five past them.
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Reports have emerged that Bruce lost his temper after the game. NothingbutNewcastle reported on some comments made by journalist Lee Ryder to The Chronicle.
The report suggested that Bruce had been willing to cut the players a fair bit of slack but flipped after that result. It’s not quite clear what he’s alluding to, but he also suggests there were some incidents behind the scenes that Bruce took a fairly relaxed approach to.
He went on to say that Bruce told the players not to bother turning up for training the next day as he lost his temper following the performance.
It probably gives you a fairly clear idea why Bruce tends to fail at the top level in management. It sounds like he spends too much time trying to be friends with the players rather than instilling discipline. That certainly comes across in the performances on the pitch with the team looking completely disorganised at times.
It still looks like he’s on a hiding to nothing at Newcastle, he’s not popular with the fans and it’s not like he’s being successful on the pitch. It wouldn’t shock anyone to see him sacked before the end of the season.