Fears of catching coronavirus have prompted Newcastle to ban their players from shaking hands with each other but arguably the biggest danger facing Steve Bruce’s side is the lack of on-field connectivity which has heightened the risk of relegation on Tyneside.
If he is playing it safe off the pitch, Bruce knew the moment to gamble on it had arrived. For the first time since September Newcastle’s manager deprived his players of the security blanket represented by Rafael Benítez’s old 3-4-3 system, reconfiguring them in a bold new 4-2-3-1 formation.
The good news was that while teammates may be a bit less tactile these days they are at least passing to each other. Indeed Newcastle commanded 55% of possession here, a hitherto unprecedented feat in a season where they have sometimes registered less than 30%.
Unfortunately the pass that really matters – the final one – was once again substandard and, despite having 21 attempts on goal, Bruce’s side are now only five points clear of the bottom three. They are without a goal in four league fixtures and have won only one of the last 10.
Ninth-placed Burnley proved second best but, in extending their unbeaten run to six games, Sean Dyche’s players showed off a well-choreographed defence, superbly marshalled by James Tarkowski. No matter that, until Chris Wood stepped off the bench, they looked as coy as Newcastle in front of goal, their manager seemed content enough. “We couldn’t quite find enough attacking energy and clean passes,” shrugged Dyche. “Defensively we were more than fine. But we couldn’t find our clarity in attack, we didn’t get the details right.”
Bruce’s revamp facilitated Dwight Gayle’s lively return in attack, Joelinton’s relocation to a wide role and Miguel Almirón’s return to his preferred No 10 position. Although Almirón did more than anyone to discomfit Burnley, their goalkeeper Nick Pope - like Tarkowski being watched by England’s Gareth Southgate - had limited scope for showing off his reflexes.
The best of a litany of home chances saw Matt Ritchie brush the outside of a post from 25 yards but Dyche’s players repeatedly reasserted themselves. A recurring theme involved the visitors keeping things scrappy in midfield where they worked extremely hard to restrict Jonjo Shelvey’s playmaking potential and blunt Isaac Hayden’s influence.
At times there was little bar Dyche’s strutting alpha male technical-area body language to distract spectators from a Siberian wind-chill factor. Perhaps everyone was simply numbed by the cold but the atmosphere was unusually flat and almost eerily quiet.
This strange torpor had begun spreading to the pitch before Wood’s introduction shook things up. Until then, Jamaal Lascelles and Federico Fernández had made Newcastle’s much-feared switch to a flat back four look pretty seamless but the New Zealand striker’s movement and sheer physical presence provoked flickers of self-doubt in the home backline.
The moment had arrived for Bruce to liberate Allan Saint-Maximin and the afternoon’s biggest cheer greeted the sight of the much-adored French winger peeling off his tracksuit top and replacing Joelinton. Yet if Phil Bardsley, Dyche’s right-back, suddenly looked a little on edge few teams are as expert as Burnley at winding down the clock and frustrating the Saint Maximins of this world.
“We were more of a threat,” Bruce said after Newcastle trudged off to a smattering of resigned boos from the home fans. “But finishing is the hardest part and therein lies our problem, our achilles heel. We just have to keep bashing away.”
