STEVE BRUCE has branded Newcastle United’s lacklustre performance in Tuesday’s Sheffield United surrender as “absolute sh**e” – and warned his players that “the gloves are off” when it comes to demanding an improvement in Monday’s game at Arsenal.

Bruce has spent the last couple of days reflecting on his side’s below-par performance at Bramall Lane, and was in no mood to pull any punches when he conducted his press duties yesterday.

The under-fire Magpies manager conceded he “picked the wrong team” as Newcastle became the first side to suffer a league defeat to Sheffield United this season, and accepted the fierce criticism that has been aimed in his direction in the last three days.

However, he also directed some of his own ire at his players, stating that their performance had been completely unacceptable.

“Listen, I’m fair game,” said Bruce, whose position has been called into question by a large section of the Newcastle fanbase during his side’s eight-game winless run. “We were absolutely frigging hopeless the other night – absolute sh**e we were.

“I have to accept it, and that’s the way it is. If you’re Newcastle manager, or any manager in the Premier League, you can’t accept what the other night was. But, unfortunately it’s happened a little bit too often during my time here.

“All the good work in the four games leading up to it went out of the window. Yes, we didn’t get the results, but I thought the way the team played, we did okay. We drew with Liverpool, drew with Arsenal after 90 minutes, we were in the game against Leicester. But the other night was completely and utterly hopeless, and I have to accept whatever is coming my way.”

Whereas Newcastle have tended to fare reasonably well against the bigger sides during Bruce’s tenure, they have repeatedly struggled in matches where they started with an expectation of coming out on top.

This is not a Newcastle side that is comfortable playing on the front foot, and while plenty will claim that Bruce’s negative tactics are a factor in that, there is either an inability or an inbuilt reluctance to commit players forward and attempt to play a progressive, attacking game.

“Our worst performances have certainly been when we’ve been expected to win,” said Bruce. “So, maybe it’s something of a mentality thing. When we’re the favourites going in, we struggle with it. I think it’s a mentality thing, which we have to change.

“I have to accept that we were nowhere near good enough against Sheffield United, certainly in the first half. Unfortunately, the same was true against Brentford in the cup tie. That’s what scars us at the minute.

“People are going to overlook the result against Arsenal in the cup or Liverpool in the league, or whatever, because too often on my watch we’ve thrown that one in where we haven’t been able to handle the expectation to go and beat a team. That’s the disappointing thing I’ll have to improve.”

Bruce concedes that he has tailored a number of team selections to try to fall into line with what he regards as his players’ most comfortable default setting. In recent weeks, he has reverted to playing with five at the back even though he has expressed his personal preference for a flat back four, and appears to have abandoned a previous pledge to play more exciting football.

After Tuesday, that is set to change, with Bruce clearly feeling he has given his under-performing players more than enough leeway, only for performances to regress rather than improve.

“I’m going to do it the way I see fit, and see where we are,” he said. “Okay, we’ve played a certain way to try to make sure we get the results that we need. But, I’ve said from day one the way I wanted to play and haven’t done it enough. The gloves are off now though, so we will do it my way.

“Yes, we’re comfortable with the central defenders we’ve got playing the way they have been (with five at the back), because week in, week out, they’re arguably our most consistent players.

“It’s something I’ve toyed with since I’ve been at the club, and to change (formation) is sometimes difficult for them. I’ve let them be comfortable. But the gloves are off now. I’m going to do it my way from now on.”

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