Don't think he'll ever light it up under Bruce unfortunately. Be happy to be proved wrong though. Hard to believe it's the same player in the clip below, but just look at the forward runs from all the players around him and how that allows him to initially drop deep as you said, and then arrive late.
He gets a hat-trick that way and then a brilliant assist for the last goal. All of last season with Newcastle he had no one ever making runs forward off him. Too bad.
His performance against Man City in the Champions League aswell around October 18 was also fantastic. Who knew playing a player in completely the wrong position would result him in not playing to his level.