Steve Bruce lays out his footballing vision for Newcastle United in response to tactical criticism

The club has taken four points from its opening three Premier League games.

Newcastle – who drew 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday thanks to a controversial injury-time penalty from Callum Wilson – haven’t had a shot on goal from open play in more than 180 minutes.

The club’s three shots on target this season all resulted in goals in a 3-0 win over West Ham United on the opening weekend of the season.

Bruce has attempted to transition to a more attacking style of play since succeeding Rafa Benitez last year.

Asked what he wanted his United team to look like, United’s head coach said: “Well, look, I think I’ve had this summer to try and put my stamp on the team, and therein lies the difficulty for all managers now, especially with transfer windows.

"Now, put this out there – I’m not looking for any excuses. And I thought last year, after watching us, we played in a certain way for a long, long time. And I didn’t think we had the personnel to change.

"Now, we changed against West Ham and played two up top. I’ve always said that, eventually, I’d like to go to a back four, and have wide players with a bit of pace and hopefully soon we’ll have them. So, hopefully, we’ll see a change in style.

"Now, when you play against the other teams, the big teams, we have to do something.

"We’ve seen that elsewhere. I’ve seen West Ham change to match up Wolves for example, win at the weekend.

"We have to have this is (flexibility) where we can change into a different system, that’s for sure.

"Against the bigger teams like that ... that doesn’t mean you just surrender, I understand where you’re coming from ... but against the bigger teams we have to have some sort of tactical plan involved in to stay in the game against them.

"Because if you open up and say right come on then, we’ll play at your game, then unfortunately it’s going to be a difficult afternoon for you because of the strength in depth these other clubs have got.”

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