Eddie Howe is going to get a lot more out of these Newcastle United players.
Well, he has to.
The Magpies are 19th in the Premier League table and five points adrift of safety as things stand.
It’s imperative that the new Newcastle manager draws a higher standard of performance from the same players than Steve Bruce.
And one man who could be about to take his game to the next level is Ryan Fraser.
Let’s face it, the 27-year-old hasn’t been a great signing for the St James’s Park club.
He arrived on a free transfer from Bournemouth in the summer of 2020.
Exciting
Newcastle signed him based on how good he was for the Cherries and the fact that it was Howe who got the very best out of him is quite exciting.
That’s because the 43-year-old brought Fraser to English football way back in 2013 and only stopped working with him last year.
In other words, the newly-appointed Newcastle boss knows Fraser better than anyone else in football and that could, in theory, bring about a much-improved run of form for the former Aberdeen attacker.
Fraser’s confidence has more than likely taken a hit over the past 12 months, particularly this season when Bruce left him on the bench virtually every single week.
But Howe, who described the player as ‘absolutely brilliant‘ this week, knows the secret to unlocking the best of Fraser – who earns £167,000 per month – and it’ll be fascinating to see if he can raise his game from here on in.
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